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BEYOND THE LINES: 



OR 



% ganlue Iriscner I^ase in §ifH. 



BY CAPTAIN J. J. GEER, 

I,ATE OF GENERAL AUCKLAND'S STAFF. 



WITH AN INTRODUCTION, 

BY KEY. ALEXANDER CLARK. 




'In the dark fens of the dismal swamp 

The hunted Yankees lay; 
They saw the fire of the midnight camp, 
And heard at times the horses' tramp, 

And the bloodhounds ' distant bay." 



PHILADELPHIA: 
J. W. DATJGHADAY, PUBLISHER, 

1308 CHESTNUT STREET. 



18 6 3, 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 181)3, hy 

JOHN J. GEER, 

In the Office of the Clerk of tlie District Court for the 
Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 



2 4, /^) 



^M 



PREFACE 



In presenting the following narrative of 
suffering endured while a prisoner in the so- 
called Southern Confederacy, the principal 
object had in view by the author, is to place 
before those into whose hands this volume may 
come, a plain, straightforward, unvarnished 
account of facts. 

In regard to the workings and results of that 
system of hiiman bondage to which our country 
owes its present difl&culties, there have been so 
many mistaken ideas, statements, and theories, 
that it has become the duty of every true and 
loyal man to expose the truth; or, speaking 
with more correctness, to strip from the hideous 
skeleton of Slavery all its gaily painted and 
deceptive cloaks and masks, and to exhibit it in 
all its ghastly repulsiveness. 

It is my purpose in the succeeding pages to 
narrate simply how, after being captured at the 
battle of Shiloh, or Pittsburg Landing, I was, 
on the most frivolous charges, tried for my life 
before several prominent Rebel Generals, among 



4 PREFACE. 

wliom were Bragg and Beauregard ; how I was 
subsequently chained with negro chains and 
cast into miUtary prisons and common jails; 
how, escaping from these, and in company with 
Lieutenant A. P. Collins, I made my way to 
the swamps ; how we lived in these malarious 
marslies for three weeks ; how we were hunted 
with bloodhounds; how we were assisted by 
the slaves in our flight, and lastly, how, being 
recaptured, we spent weary months in confine- 
ment, and were finally released on exchange 
from our dreadful captivity. 

To all those friends who have cheered him 
since his return home with kind words and 
deeds, the au.thor begs leave to extend his 
warmest thanks, — but more especially to Kev. 
Alexander Clark, Editor of Glarkh School 
Visitor, who revised and arranged the Manu- 
scripts for the press, and to whose scholarly 
abilities this Y<^lume owes so much. He desires 
also to testify to like kindness on the part of 
Kev. W. B. Watkins, A. M., and Milo A. 
TowNSEND, Esq., of New Brighton, Pennsyl- 
vania, whose friendship has laid him under a 
debt of grateful remembrance. 

J. J. GEER. 

Springfield, Ohio, June 8, 1863. 



TABLE or CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Leave Camp Dennisou — Up the Tennessee — Under the 
Enemy's Fire — Attacked in Force — A Struggle for Li- 
berty—Captured. 21—29 



CHAPTER 11. 

First Sight of a Rebel Camp — Arraigned before Generals 
Jackson, Bragg, Hardee, Beauregard, and Johnston — A 
Storm in Camp — Bayoneting a Sleeping Man (?) — In- 
terior of a Rebel Prison — " Calico Bill" — An Escape — 
Rebel Exaggerations, 30 — 44 



CHAPTER III. 

Taken to Columbus, Mississippi — Visit from the Clergy — 
An Enthusiastic Mute — American Aristocracy — Seces- 
sion Lies — Political and Ecclesiastical Prisoners — Re- 
flections. 45 — 54 

1* (5) 



D CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER lY. 

The "Wounded from Shiloh. — Inquisitive Negroes — An 
Abomination — A Striking Contrast — Tom — Attempted 
Escape — An Ingenious Darkey — Rebel Fare — The Irish 
Sergeant — Narrow Escape — Mending Clothes and Getting 
News — Horrible Scenes in Prison — A Discussion. 55 — 69 



CHAPTER V. 

Southern Inhumanity — A Prison Telegraph — Mobile — Con- 
versation with a Fire-Eater— Negro Sale Stables— A Bad 
Sign — Mule Beef — Montgomery — In the Penitentiary — 
Felon Soldiers — Hanging for Theft — Visit to a Con- 
demned Prisoner — Who Shall Answer ? 70—80 



CHAPTER YI. 

A New Prison — Murder of Lieutenant Bliss — In Irons — 
Yankee Ingenuity — Rebel Ignorance — Parson Rogers — 
Faithful Servants — Bold and Successful Escape of 
Prisoners— Captain Troy — A Blindfold Journey — A 
Traitor. 81—90 



CHAPTER YII. 

Macon — A Southern Unionist in the Rebel Army — Beneath 
a Georgia Sun — Secession Speech — Thoughts of Home — 
Political Prisoners — Horrible Place — Offer of the Gospel — 
Lieutenant A. P. Collins — Contemplated Escape — Robes 
of Blood ! — Pinning a Federal Soldier to the Ground. 

91—102 



CONTENTS. 7j 

CHAPTEE VIII. 

Preparing the Way — Dave — Pepper, Matches, and Fish- 
hooks — Exchange of Clothing — Passing the Guard-lines 
— Frightened Horse — Halted — Passed — In the Woods — 
Hidden in the Swamp— Pursued — A Night Journey in 
the Cane-brake — Manna. 103 — 113 



CHAPTEE IX. 

Seeking the Hills — Retreating to the Swamps — Pursued 
by Bloodhounds — Suffering from Hunger — A Dreary 
Night — An Answered Prayer — Singular Noise — Lost in 
the Cane-brake — A Dismal Journey — A Dream — A Sur- 
prise — Wanderings and Wearyings in the Wilderness — 
A Comforter Present — Hope and Cheer — A Cotton-jfield 
— A Friend in Need — Negro Music — A Feast in the Night 
— An Intelligent Slave — Advice to Fugitives. 114 — 130 



CHAPTEE X. 

Pursued by Horses, Hounds, and Men — Another Night in 
the Cane-brake — x\n Alligator — A Pleasant Discovery — 
The Pass-word — Slaves at Work — A Negro Supper — 
Important Information — A Panther — A Chase to avoid 
a Chase — Bloodhounds Again — Fourth-of-July Dinner — 
Dismal Night in the Ruins of a Meeting-house. 131 — 142 



O CONTENTS. 

CHAPTEE XI. 

Nearing the Coast — Dangerous Predicament — Suspicious 
Company — A Fugitive Conscript — Clay-eating Officials — 
The Squire — Arrested — Mess No. 44, alias Mr. Meeser — 
Acquitted — Placed under Guard — In Chains Again — A 
Forced March — Before the Court — A Union Speech in 
Dixie — Better Fare — Southern Superstition — A Slave at 
Prayer. 143—157 



CHAPTEE XII. 

Christian Fellowship— Candid Conversation with a Slave- 
holder — Clay-eaters — A True Unionist — Secret Organi- 
zations in the South — Washington and Randolph on 
Slavery — Aunt Katy— -Religion and Republicanism — Pro- 
slavery Inexcusable in the North — A Distinguished 
Abolitionist. 158—169 



CHAPTEE XIII. 

Classes in the Confederacy — Terror of a Name — Insurrec- 
tion— Su]^pressing a Religious Meeting — The Safe Ground 
— A Sad Parting— Why Prisoners' Stories Differ— EflFect 
of Church Division— The Darien Road— A Wealthy 
Planter. 170—181 



CHAPTEE XIV. 

On the Cars — An Old Acquaintance — His Reasons for being 
in the Army — Meeting the Slave we Chased— Rebel Ac- 
count of our Pursuit — Interesting Advertisement — In 
Jail Again — Captain Clay Crawford — Prison Fare — Rebel 
Barbarities — Taking Comfort. 182—193 



CONTENTS. 9 

CHAPTER XV. 

An Earnest Prayer — What came of it — A Skeptic — ^Fiend's 
Stratagem — Reflections and Opinions on the " Peculiar 
Institution." 194—198 



CHAPTER XYI. 

The Rebel Reveille — A Horrid Dinner — A Reinforcement of 
Little Rebels — The Darkie's Explanation — An Exciting 
Trial — Hope of Release — Retribution — My Old Chains 
doing good Service. 199 — 209 



CHAPTER XYII. 

Sufferings of Captives — Shooting a Deaf Man — A Terrible 
Punishment — Arguments on Slavery — Opinions of Cele- 
brated Men — A Sabbath School in Prison — A Loyal Lady 
— Pennsylvania a Pioneer — Emancipation — Our Prayer- 
Meetings — Rays of Sunshine. 210 — 237 



CHAPTER XYIII. 

The Slave's Ruse — The Richmond Enquirer — President's 
Proclamation — A Negro Pra3^er — A " Big Bug" — A Casi- 
bianca — Death of Mr. Eckles — Thoughts and Plans of 
Escape — Lieutenant Pittenger. 238 — 251 



10 CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XIX. . 

Just Judgment — Greneral Prentiss in Close Confinement — 
Northern Peace Men — Bear Story — In tlie Hospital — 
Old Aunt Susie— Sold Children— Without Bread, and 
Satisfied — What our Fathers thought — An Untram- 
meled Pulpit — Clay- eaters — Commissioners to Wash- 
ington — Homeward Bound — An Irate Southron — My 
Yellow Angel — Our Journey — An Accident — Jeff. Davis' 
Coffin — Don't Know Myself — Safe at Home — Conclusion. 

252—285 



INTRODIJCTION. 



John James Geer was born in Rockbridge 
county, Virginia, June 1st, 1833. He is next 
to the youngest of a family of nine children. 
The father emigrated to Ohio when John was 
quite young, and settled in Shelby county, where 
he lived and labored as an industrious farmer 
for a long lifetime. Being in moderate circum- 
stances, he was unable to educate his children as 
he wished, as their young hands were an indis- 
pensable help in the clearing and tilling of the 
land; but the lads wrought for themselves a 
training and discipline in the fields, and at the 
fireside, such as made honest-hearted heroes of 
them. 

Though this tuition may not be the most 
fashionable, it is far from being the least useful 
or influential in a nation like ours. The only 
external polish that will never grow coarse is 



12 INTRODUCTrON. 

tlie out-sliming of inward purity and kindness. 
The law of love is a sufficient code of politeness 
and etiquette. The rarest soul-furnishing, and 
the most radiant and reliable loyalty, are virtu- 
ous intelligence, an appreciation of the true and 
the beautiful in Nature, in mind and morals, the 
utterance of generous impulses, the self-respect 
that prefers its own calm approval to the world's 
admiration and flattery. Such a heroism is 
purely democratic, and sets the price of its in- 
tegrity too high to offer itself as a prize for party 
bidding ! It stands like a granite pillar, strong, 
and straight, and upright. We may build on 
this, and stand secure for solid years. It is this 
untrammeled life the nation needs at this very 
time in the hearts of all her citizens. 

Mr. Geer never received any lessons in the 
school of pretences. He never learned the art 
of deceiving or being deceived. He studied 
something deeper of the world while his hands 
held the plough that furrowed its surflxce. He 
gained more instruction from the leaves on the 
forest trees than from the leaves of printed books. 
He cultivated at one and the same time his own 



INTRODUCTION. IS 

mind, and the soil of his father's farm. His sur- 
roundings were the pictures and poetries of Na- 
ture. His eye saw no shams, his ear heard no 
complaints, his heart knew no hypocrisies. 
Trained in such a school, he became a thinker 
and a worker ; his associations were altogether 
with plain and practical people ; he was never 
flushed with feverish fancies, nor discouraged at 
any disappointments. Always cheerful, as only a 
busy doer and darer can be, he grew into man- 
hood, full-built, tough-muscled, keen-nerved, and 
strong-minded. He acquired by hygienic habits 
a ''constitution" that needed never an ''amend- 
ment." He shaped, all unconsciously to himself, 
a moral character as honorable as it wasTiumble ; 
yet it was such as recognized in the minutest 
particular, and exacted to the fullest degree, the 
claims of a common brotherhood. 

Pure democracy, like all living, blossoming, 
fruit-bearing growths, flourishes best in the 
country. A principle that strikes root in an hour 
in the hotbed of the city, is apt to wilt and die in 
the sunshine of the open world. Aristocracy 
may be plaited into politics; but it takes integ- 
2 



14 INTRODUCTION. 

rity and fellow-hood for web and woof of repub- 
licanism. Young Geer was a democrat, in the 
honest signification of the term. Though poor 
and sunburnt, hard-fisted and plain-worded, he 
learned to feel that no man in the republic was 
his superior in rights — that no man in the repub- 
lic was his inferior in privileges. The truth of 
Holy Writ, that declares " all nations to be of 
one blood," was his confession of faith in con- 
science and Christianity. The spirit of the De- 
claration of Independence, that ''all men are 
created free and equal," was his political plat- 
form. These high authorities gave him early 
and earnest boldness as a friend of human liberty. 
At the age of eighteen, he was called to the 
work of the Gospel ministry. He passed into 
this work, not as a mere profession, by the paths 
marked out by ecclesiastics, — not by college car- 
pets and seminary shades, — but as the early 
preachers were called, so was he, from his daily 
avocation. His inherent firmness made him an 
unyielding, if not an aggressive Christian. He 
stemmed a strong current of opposition from the 
beginning of his ministry. His independent 



INTRODUCTION. 15 

manner gave offence to rowdy transgressors, and 
frequently was lie threatened and waylaid by 
the very doers of the deeds he made it a business 
to denounce in his sermons. But he wavered 
not from his sense of duty. 

One of his first and truest friends was the 
Eev. K. M. Dalby, a well-known minister and 
Temperance reformer in South-western Ohio. 
These two men were acknowledged leaders in 
the war of annihilation against King Alcohol 
and his conscripted hosts. For years they were 
joined in word and work in the good cause of 
Temperance, and were separated only when, 
in the spring of 1861, Geer heard his wounded 
country's cry for help, and quickly stepped to 
a place in the front rank of her brave defenders. 
His well-tried associate in battling against 
wrong, Mr. Dalby, was left behind now, only 
because he was physically unable to march 
to the rescue. 

Before entering the army of the Union, Mr. 
Geer had spent some ten years in the ministry, 
in and around the city of Cincinnati. During 
that time he received about eleven hundred 



16 INTRODUCTION. 

members into the church. He was eminently 
successful as a revivalist. When Fort Sumpter 
was fired upon, he was stationed as pastor of the 
George Street Methodist Protestant Church, in 
Cincinnati. When the news of the outrage was 
received at the Queen City, the pastor of George 
Street Church vowed he was a United States 
soldier until either himself or the rebellion 
should be crushed. He began recruiting at 
once for the Army of Freedom, and was as 
successful as he had been in marshaling forces 
for the Army of Peace. 

Until this time he had been unwilling to 
interfere with the "peculiar institution" of the 
South. But the moment the Stars and Stripes 
were insulted by the proud power, that moment 
a new resolve was made, to hate and to hurt the 
accursed thing henceforward, until the last 
vestige of it should be obliterated from American 
soil! 

Captain Geer is an earnest man. He engaged 
in the war, not for position or popularity, but 
as a soldier. Although he started into the ser- 
vice as Chaplain, he was willing to resign that 



INTRODUCTION. 17 

responsible office to the charge of another ; and 
at once accepted a position that promised more 
excitement and adventure in days of battle. He 
was appointed Assistant- Adjutant General on 
the Staff of General Buckland, which commission 
he held when he was wounded and captured at 
Shiloh. 

In these days of adventure and sacrifice, 
when the noblest men in the nation are made 
to suffer for country's sake, it is shameful to 
see how certain northern people and papers, 
professing to be loyal, are in sympathy with 
the arch treason of the Secessionists. How- 
ever well-attested may be the statemeoits of 
surviving sufferers, — and no matter how fair the 
reputation of the man who dares to denounce 
the Slaveholders' Kebellion, — there are lurking 
copperheads with viper tongues to hiss their 
venomous abuses on all the brave soldiers who 
have bled under the Federal banner ! From the 
liberty to talk treason, slander the Administra- 
tion, and abuse the soldiers — O God, deliver us ! 
The nation cries for liberty — not license — a 
liberty that is always loyal to God and this 
2^ 



18 INTRODUCTION. 

Government — a liberty to love and bless the 
poor, the outcast, tbe suffering, and the op- 
pressed ! 

It may not be amiss to append the following 
extracts from letters which will explain them- 
selves ; 

"Springfield, Ohio, Mat 3, 1863. 
'' To all whom it may concern: — 

" The undersigned, ministers of the Gospel 
in the Methodist Protestant Church, take plea- 
sure in certifying that Captain John J. Geer is 
also a minister in the same church — that he is 
in good standing, and that he is a man of moral 
probity and Christian character. Some of us 
have known him for many years as a reputable, 
useful, pious man. We are all personally ac- 
quainted with him, and we have no hesitancy 
in recommending him to personal and public 
confidence. 

Rev. George Brown, D. D. 
Rev. a H. Bassett, 

Ag't M. P. Book Concern. 
Rev. a. H. Trumbo, 

Assistant Ag't M. P. Book Concern. 
Rev. D. B. Dorset, M. D., 

Editor Western Methodist Protestant^ 



INTBODUCTION. 19 

** Office of Military Commission, ) 
Memphis, Tenn, May 11, 1863. ) 

* * * ^ 4t <f rjy-^Q large number of men 
he recruited for my regiment, and the hard- 
ships which he endured, to uphold the Flag of 
the Free, point out Captain Geer to the historian 
as a brave and true man. * * * But tv/o 
days before the memorable battle of Shiloh, 
he was captured while making a bold and 
vigorous dash at the enemy, within two miles 
of our encampment. * -J^- * * The tears 
are now filling my eyes as I look back upon 
that bloody battle-field, and remember the 
havoc and slaughter of my heroic boys of the 
Forty-Eighth ! 

" The brave men who, upon that occasion, 
maintained the fortunes of our bleeding country, 
have ever since been the subjects of persecution 
and calumny by those base cowards who ran 
from the battle-field and hid themselves in 
ravines and gulches at Shiloh, and the con- 
temptible traitors whose tongues are as the 
tongues of serpents at home. 
" Your sincere friend, 

Peter J. Sullivan, 
Colonel 48th Eeg't Ohio Volunteers." 

Since his return from Dixie, Captain Geer 
and Lieutenant William Pittenger (one of the 



20 INTRODUCTION. 

survivors of that heroic scouting party sent 
into the heart of Georgia by General Mitche]!), 
have been doing good service for the Union 
cause in the North by public lectures. Both 
are well-tried soldiers and effective speakers. 
Both are temporarily disabled, but expect soon 
to re-enter the army. Lieutenant Pittenger 
has prepared a volume of his experience, as a 
prisoner in the South, which will be a desirable 
companion to the book whose thrilling pages 
are now opened to you^ reader. Turn forward, 
and read. • A. c. 



BEYOND THE LINES ; 

OR 
A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 



CHAPTER I. 



Leave Camp Dennison — Under the Enemy's Fire — Attacked 
in Force— A Struggle for Liberty — Captured. 

On the 17th of February, 1862, the Forty-eighth 
Ohio regiment of volunteer infantry, under 
command of Colonel P. Gr. Sullivan, left Camp 
Dennison, landing at Paducah, Kentucky, and 
on the -Ith of March, was ordered to Savannah, 
Tennessee. As our fleet made its way up the 
river, it was a sight at once grand and beau- 
tiful. It was composed of one hundred large 
steamers, laden to the guards with soldiers, cat- 
tle, and munitions of war. The river was at 
high .water mark. Through its surging waters 
our noble vessels ploughed their way, sending 
forth vast volumes of smoke, which shadowed 
and sooted the atmosphere from hill to hill across 

(21) 



22 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

the river valley. Over our heads waved proudly 
the old banner — emblem of the free. All hearts 
seemed anxious to meet the foe who had sought 
to strike down that flag, and the hopes and 
liberties of which it is representative. 

A cry was heard on board that the enemy 
was near. A moment more, and he opened fire 
upon us, to which we very promptly replied, 
and with good effect, for he soon dispersed, 
while none of our men received injury. 

Continuing our way onward we stopped at 
Hamburg on the 11th of March ; but, owing to 
the great freshet, were unable to disembark, and 
the next day were obliged to fall back to Pitts- 
burg, where we effected a landing on the 13th. 
In the mean time, I was appointed on the staff 
of Colonel Ealph D. Buckland, then acting as 
Brigadier of the Fourth Brigade, under General 
Sherman, who commanded the First Division. 
Most of us landed by the 15th, and parties were 
sent out every day to reconnoitre, and many 
returned, reporting fights with the enemy, and 
the capture of prisoners, horses, and other 
valuables. 

On the 28th, we had quite a bloody conflict 
in a cotton-field, belonging to Mr. Beach, who 
was the owner of a small lot of cotton. The 
rebels had robbed him of all his horses, pork. 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 23 

and wheat, leaving him nothing but the cotton 
and a small amount of corn, which the Govern- 
ment intended to purchase. But when we were 
dispatched for it, we found that the rebels, who 
were now in full retreat, had rolled the cotton 
against a corn-crib, and set both on fire. The 
next day we had a fight near the same spot. 
Again, the next day, a reconnoissance showed 
the enemy to be in full force. On the 8d of 
April, the Fourth Brigade was sent out, and the 
skirmishers who were deployed, were soon fired 
upon. Col. Buckland then sent me forward to 
order the two companies to retreat. One of 
these I found was already doing so, under 
the command of the Major, who was in ad- 
vance. The company belonging to the Seventy- 
second regiment stood their ground, awaiting 
orders. 

When I rode to the top of the hill, I could 
see the enemy about two hundred yards dis- 
tant. The lieutenant of the Seventy- second 
was holding his men in readiness, and just as I 
reached them, they arose and opened fire, at 
which the rebels retreated to the right, evi- 
dently intending to flank us. But this was an 
unfortunate movement for them, as they had 
not proceeded far when they encountered Major 
Crockett, of the Seventy-second, with two 



24: BEYOND THE LINES; OK 

hundred men, by whom they were repulsed 
with heavy loss. By this time I had come up 
with the brigade. Buckland dispatched me im- 
mediately to order Crockett to fall back, but to 
continue fighting while retreating. As I pro- 
ceeded on my way to Crockett — who, indeed, 
was a brave and daring officer — I met a 
lady of advanced age, in great distress. She 
was wringing her hands and crying : 

" Oh, my son ! Oh, my son ! Save me and 
my poor son !" 

I rode forward to Crockett, and found that he 
had repulsed the enemy, and was falling back 
in order. 

Being alone, and in advance of the retreating 
companies, I again encountered the old lady on 
the same spot where I first saw her. Inquiring 
the cause of her grief, I learned that the rebels 
had been at her house, representing themselves 
as Union men, and that she had expressed her- 
self to them, without disguise or reserve. They 
had thereupon seized her son, tied him on a 
horse, and bore him away, intending to presg 
him into their service. My heart ached at the 
recital of this sad story, and at the thought of 
the suffering and agony to which so many fami- 
lies, between the two great armies, would be 
subjected. My sincere prayer to Gpd, was that 



A YANKEE PEISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 25 

he would sustain the right, and send confusion 
amidst the fues of freedom and humanity. The 
old lady seemed very apprehensive they would 
learn that she had divulged to me the facts 
alluded lo. Thus it is hj fmr that the loyal in 
heart are kept m submission. Thus, the ty- 
rant's power rules and dominates in the South. 
Wherever oppression and tyrann}^ reign, they 
must have for their basis, violence and brute 
force — and these beget fear. It is as true that 
fear casts out love, as it is that ^' love casts out 
fear." 

We returned to camp, and that night we felt 
confident that our pickets were in danger. The 
dreary hours passed slowly away, bringing at 
last the light of another morning. Our pickets 
were then extended ; and on returning from this 
duty, T remarked to Bvickland that I believed 
we would be attacked before night. But he 
thought not, and requested me to retire to my 
tent, and seek repose. I went, but concluded 
to write to my wife. About two o'clock that 
afternoon, the rebels opened fire .upon our 
pickets. I instantly mounted my horse that I 
had left standing at the door, and rode with all 
speed to the picket line, where I discovered that 
the rebels had captured Lieutenant Herbert and 
seven privates. The Seventy second. Forty- 



26 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

eighth, and Seventieth were soon rallied ; and I 
thought if no fight now ensued, it would be no 
fault of mine, eager as I was for the fray. So 
I rode rapidly up the Tennessee river, in order 
to strike the Hamburg road, aware that I could 
see up that road about one mile, and thus dis- 
cover what was going on. 

As I was proceeding, I perceived, at a little 
distance, two rebels, who fled at my approach. 
I soon reached the road, and discovered, to my 
great surprise, that it was lined with rebels as 
far as I could see. I soon wheeled my horse, 
and, with accelerated speed, made my way back 
to General Buckland. He again dispatched me 
to inform Major Crockett to retreat in order. 

On my way thither, these words greeted my 
ear: 

"Haltdar! haltdar!" 

1 responded by firing my revolver, as a sig- 
nal that I did not design to comply with the 
peremptory demand so euphoniously expressed. 
The words proceeded from two rebels, whom I 
discovered approaching me. They fired, and 
both loads took effect in my horse's shouldei-. 
But he did not fall. Applying my spurs, he 
sprang down a little declivity, where the rebels 
stood with their empty guns. One of them 
struck at me with his empty weapon. I at- 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 27 

tempted to parry the blow witli my left hand, 
and received a severe wound, having my second 
linger broken, which was thus rendered useless 
for life. The instant discharge of my revolver 
resulted in breaking an arm of this foe, and I 
immediately turned to my second antagonist, 
who was hastily reloading his gun. The con- 
tents of another barrel at once disabled him. 
This was all the work of a moment. Just at 
tliis juncture, it began to rain in torrents; and 
before I realized my situation, I discovered that 
I was surrounded by about fifty rebels. The 
rain and the darkness in the woods, from the 
overhanging storm-cloud, rendered it difficult 
for the rebels to distinguish their own men 
from ours, and they made the mistake — fortu- 
nately for me, but the reverse for them — of 
firing at each other. Their colonel, however^ 
soon discovered the error, and gave the com- 
mand to cease firing. There was now no possi- 
ble chance for my escape, and I instantly 
received a blow which felled me to the earth. 
How long I remained insensible I could not 
tell. The first thing I recollect taking cogni- 
zance of, was the act of Colonel Gladden, who, 
dragging me out of a pool of water into which 
I had fallen, demanded my surrender. I seemed 
to lose all thought of home, wife, friends, 



28 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

earth, or Leaven. The absorbing thought was 
the success of our army. 

"Will you surrender?" demanded Colonel 
Gladden. 

''I have discharged my last bullet, sir," I 
replied. 

He commanded me to mount my horse. I 
refused. My captors then seized hold of me, 
and, throwing me across my wounded horse, 
made a rapid retreat. Our boys were coming 
at "double quick," and so impetuous was their 
charge towards the enemy, who was now ap- 
proaching — consisting of Beauregard's advance 
guard of five thousand cavalry — that they be- 
gan retreating in wild confusion. More than a 
hundred riderless horses ran dashing past me. 
The conflict became general and terrific, and 
the mighty, sweeping onset of our brave boys 
was only stayed by the opening of Bragg's 
front battery, which incessantly poured forth its 
shot and shell. During this interim, mj^self 
and the guards detailed to take charge of me 
were located in a ravine, and hence the cannon 
shots passed over our heads. A rifle-ball from 
one of our men, however, at this juncture, 
brought one of the guards from his horse. A 
rebel colouel approached him, saying, ''You 
are too good a man to die so." At this moment 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 29 

a second ball pierced the heart of the rebel 
colonel, and he dropped dead. 

It was here that mj horse fell and died, and 
I felt as if a friend had gone, whose place could 
not be easily filled. 

There was a wild and gloomy grandeur in 
this battle-storm raging and booming over 
our heads like ten thousand thunders ; and my 
heart was tremulous with hope at one moment, 
and with apprehension at another, for the fate 
of our gallant braves. Alas ! my soul mourned 
when I found they had been driven back by 
the overwhelming force of the enemy. 

3* 



30 



CHAPTEE II. 

First Sight of a Rebel Camp — Ariaigned before Generals 
Jackson, Bragg, Hardee, Beauregard and Johnson — A 
Storm in Camp — Bayoneting a Sleeping Man (?j — Inside 
View of a Rebel Prison — "Calico Bill" — An Escape — 
Rebel Exaggerations. 

In due time, I was conveyed to General Jack- 
son. Wliat a scene was opened to view! 
What a motley, mongrel, nondescript crowd 
did rebel dom liere present ! Old and young, 
bond and free, small and great, black and 
Avhite, with countenances forlorn, agonized, or 
ferocious, with limbs mangled and torn. Sor- 
rowful were the wailings of the wounded, and 
bitter the imprecations of the chagrined and 
discomfited crew. 

Colonel Gladden and four privates were my 
escort to Jackson's tent. 

" I have brought you a Yankee, General," 
said Colonel Gladden. 

The rebel general inquired of me my rank. 
I declined telling him. I was then asked for 
papers, and upon making examination, they 
found with me maps of thQ Hamburg road, 



A YANKEE PRISONEE LOOSE IN DIXIE. 31' 

and a snial] rebel fortification. As soon as 
they made tliis discovery, Jackson inquired : 

" Sir, wliat is the number of your men ?" 

"We have a small skirmishing paity, Gen- 
eral," I replied. '' You have not captured them 
all to-day, and you will not to-morrow." 

^'' Sir," he answered sharply, '' you know the 
number, and if you do not inform me, and that 
promptly, I shall have jou punished." 

" I shall not inform yon," said I, coolly ; 
*'you affirm that you are going there to-morrow, 
and if so, yon can then see for yourself." 

Somewhat enraged at this, he again threat- 
ened that he would punish me. 

'' Proceed with your punishment, sir," was my 
rejoinder ; '^ but I shall reveal to you nothing 
that I think it my duty to withhold." 

''I will refer you to General Bragg," said 
Jackson. 

'^Eefsr me to whom you please." 

I was then taken before General Bragg. On 
our way thither, much excitement prevailed in 
the crowd, to many of whom the sight of a 
Yankee was as great a' curiosity as one of Du 
Chaillu's famous gorillas. Various remarks 
saluted my ear, such as " What a big man he 
is." "Why ! do Yankees look that thar way ?" 



32 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

^' Why ! golly, they're better looking fellows nor 
we are." 

Such expressions are significant of that stra- 
tum of society which exists in the South to an 
almost incredible extent. 

When we arrived at General Bragg's qnar- 
ters, some men were engaged in placing in a 
rude box, the body of a man who had been 
shot by Bragg's orders, for attempting to escape 
to our lines. I was not without apprehensions 
that such would be my own fate. Still, my 
mind was more occupied as to what was to be 
the result of the battle that had just begun. 
The long-haired monster in human shape stood 
over the dead man's remains, swearing that " it 
was good enough for him." Just as we were 
entering Bragg's tent, a rough, uncouth-look- 
ing fellow, exclaimed : 

''Tarnation! are you going to shoot this 
ere fellow ?" pointing to me. 

•'No," said one of the guards, "we are going 
to keep him for a show, by golly." 

I began soon to realize that the chances for 
my life were growing less and less. The 
charges arrayed against me, were for firing and 
killing six men, after I had been surrounded. 
I neither affirmed nor denied. The full results 
of my firing I did not know. I made up my 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IX Di:SIE. 33 

mind, however, that whatever fate was before 
me, I would exhibit no shrinking or fear. It 
seemed probable that my doom was to be shot, 
and I felt impelled to answer their interroga- 
tories in a somewhat defiant manner. The fol- 
lowing dialogue ensued : 

Bragg, " Well, sir, jou are a prisoner." 
Oeer. " You have me in your power, sir." 
B. '' You have not surrendered, tbey say." 
G. " But you have me in your possession." 
B. "Well, sir, what is the number of your 
troops at Pittsburg Landing ?" 

G, " That I do not feel disposed to commu- 
nicate." 

B. "But we will make you communicate." 
G. " You cannot do that." 
B. " We will punish you, and that severely." 
G. " Punish if you will, I shall not reveal to 
you anything I deem it proper to withhold." 

B. ''Well, sir, I will refer you to General 
Hardee, and there you will get justice. You 
abolitionists think you are playing h — 11 over 
there, don't you ?" 

G. " We are only sending home some of her 
stray inmates." 

B. 'M>e careful how you talk, sir." Turning 
to a rebel officer, the speaker continued : " Col- 
onel, take this man to General Hardee, and 



34 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

give him all tlie particulars." [Handing Mm a 
note addressed to Hardee) 

I was thereupon placed on a stolen horse, and 
conducted to General Hardee. 

On my way from Bragg's to Hardee's quar- 
ters, my mind was busied with singular fancies. 
I thought of rebel treachery and oppression ; I 
thought of the arch-conspirators at Montgom- 
ery, the disgraceful bombardment of Sumpter, 
the murder of United States 4roops in the 
streets of Baltimore, the enslavement of four 
millions of Adam's race, all by the hateful 
power that now had me in its clutches. These 
atrocities made me the more willing to suffer in 
tlie defense of the Government that I had vol- 
unteered to serve. 

Hardee is a noble-looking man, and on this 
occasion was dressed in full uniform of blue 
cloth. 

^'General," said my conductor, "here is a 
Yankee officer, referred to you by General 
Brao^Sf." 

''For what purpose?" asked the General. 

"For examination, sir." 

The General, with a look of surprise and in- 
dignation, replied: 

" I shall ask the young man no questions that 
I Avould not answer mvself under similar cir- 



A YANKEE PRISONEK LOOSE IN DIXIE. 85 

cumstances. But," added he, after a moment's 
consideration, "I shall send you to General 
Beauregard." 

I could hardly repress a smile at this decision, 
for now, thought I, I shall see the chiefest rebel 
of them all. 

We passed through motley crowds of long- 
haired "butternuts," to a place called Monterey. 
The General-in-Chief's headquarters were in a 
dilapidated cabin. I was immediately arraigned 
before a bony-faced old man with a gray mous- 
tache, not at all prepossessing in personal ap- 
pearance. Yet, on closer observation, I could 
detect a cunning shrewdness and a penetrating 
forethought in his tones and manner. 

Beauregard. "You have been rather unfortu- 
nate to-day, sir." 

Geer. "Yes, sir, a little so to-day, but not so 
much on other days." (I referred to the four 
days' skirmishing prior to the Shiloh fight, in 
which we had seriously worsted the rebels.) 

B. " Sir, they tell me you have not surren- 
dered." 

G. ''Xo, sir; but you have me in your 
power." 

B. " What are 3^our reasons for not surren- 
dering ?" 

G. '' I decline telling you, sir." 



36 BEYOXD THE LINES; OR 

B. '^ Bat you shall tell me !" 

G. " If you press me, I will tell you. I sur- 
render to no foe tliat can not look me in the 
face nationally." 

When I had utte-red these words, great ex- 
citement prevailed. In the din and confasion, I 
could discover the cr}^, " Cut his head otY !" 
But in the midst of the melee, General Beaure- 
gard ordered silence, and said he would refer 
me to Greneral Johnson. 

As I was leaving Beauregard's quarters, I 
heard that gentleman say : 

" We intend to go on from victory to victory, 
till we drive you invaders from our soil." 

''Yes," replied I, for I felt his remarks 
keenly, "just as you did at Fort Donelson." 

I left in the midst of the bitterest impreca- 
tions, escorted by a heavy guard. By this 
time it had grown quite dark; and as my 
clothing was very wet, I began to suffer with 
the cold. 

Still conducted by the colonel, I soon came 
to Johnson's headquarters, which were upon the 
battle-field. In a tent adjoining that of John- 
son, a court-martial was in session, presided 
over by the General, and into this tent I was 
taken, where the following colloquy ensued : 



A YANKEE PEISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 87 

Col. G. ^'General Johnson, I have brought 
you a Yankee prisoner, sir." 

Gen. J. -Yes, sir." 

Col. G. " General, what are you going to do 
with him ?" 

Gen. J. '"' Treat him like a man. Bring in the 
surgeon and dress his wounds, and give him 
something to eat." 

A colored boy was immediately called, and I 
was soon engaged in discussing the merits of a 
warm supper. After finishing the meal, I was 
taken out and seated by a fire near the tent, 
still closely watched and heavily guarded. I 
heard the General say to the court-martial that 
"the charges against the prisoner were, 1st. 
For firing after he was surrounded; 2d. For 
injuring our men by firing; and 3d. That he 
never surrendered." 

" Now," said Johnson, " if he had first surren- 
dered, and then fired and injured our men, he 
would have been guilty, and the court-martial 
might have condemned him. But inasmuch 
as he did not surrender, he is not liable to the 
death punishment. In regard to this third 
charge, I will remark that you can not legally 
court-martial a man for not surrendering. And 
now," continued he, addressing the ofiicers, " do 
you know that, if I had been placed in similar 
4 



88 BEYOND THE LINE ^ : OR 

circumstances, I would have clone just as he 
did?" 

It would be impossible for me to describe the 
emotions I then experienced. Until I heard 
this, I had not indulged the faintest hope of life. 
Johnson handed me a paper, and said : 

" Will 3^ou please sign this parole that you 
will report at Corinth to-morrow ?" 

I declined to do this, for I hoped that if I 
could make my escape to the Union lines that 
night, I could impart information of great Value 
to our arm}^. 

When I declined, the rebel Colonel said, 
" There, General, T told you what he was." 
General Johnson replied : 

" Detail a guard of six men to take charge of 
him, and treat him well." 

The guard was brought, and amidst their 
guns and bayonets, I was led away. 

They conducted me to a tent on the hill, near 
a small ravine, whjDse waters flowed into the 
Tennessee. From the locality of the ground, I 
thought that if I could run the guards that 
night, I could find my way to the river, and 
thence back to my brigade. Lying down in 
the tent, which was now my prison, I awaited 
patiently the development of events, hoping the 
while that the guards might soon be blest by 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 39 

the gentle embrace of slumber. I feigned sleep 
and snored prodigiously. 

"How sound that Yankee sleeps/' I beard 
one of tbe guards remark. 

About midnight a storm arose^ and threat- 
ened destruction to my tent, which was shortly 
after blown over by an auspicious blast. It 
instantly occurred to me that perchance there 
was now an opportunity^ to escape, in the dark- 
ness and noise of the storm. I attempted to 
roll quietly away from the wreck, and might 
have succeeded had I not encountered a guard, 
who thrust me with his bayonet, exclaiming, 
" Halt, dar !" I inquired as innocently as I 
could, '^ You wouldn't bayonet a sleeping man, 
would you ?" 

''Oh I" said he, apologetically, ''I thought 
you was awake." 

" Why ! our tent has blown over, don't you 
see ?" 

The tent was soon put up, and I again safely 
ensconced within its canvas walls. The next 
day I was taken to Corinth, in a mule wagon, 
and deposited in a rickety old warehouse. 
Among the prisoners here were about twenty 
slaves, some of them almost white, and all clad 
in rags. Also in the company were ten or a 



40 BEYOND THE LINES ; OK 

dozen Tennesseeans, yclept '^ political prisoners," 
together with a few rebel soldiers. 

Among the latter was a droll genius, who 
answered to the name of " Calico Bill," who 
was under sentence of death for flogging his 
captain. By some means he had procured an 
old United States uniform, in which he donned 
the dignity of a brigadier. In this garb he 
would frequently assume the position of drill- 
master, and the poor imbecile clay-eaters would 
obey his orders with the menial servitude of 
slaves. His conduct, while it was highly tyran- 
nous, was nevertheless amusing. IJe seemed 
to have these ignorant soldiers completely 
under his control, and I refer to this illustra- 
tion of slavish fear to " point the moral," if not 
''to adorn the tale." It does not require very 
profound penetration to ascertain the fact that 
all through the South '' the schoolmaster has 
long been ahroadr I have sometimes thought 
that if our present conflict resulted in no other 
good, it would send light to many a benighted 
spot, and, perchance, 

" Pour fresli instruction o'er the mind, 
Breathe the enlivening spirit, and fix 
The generous purpose in the glowing breast." 

]^ot a man in the prison with us could read ! 



A YANKEE riilSONEK LOOSE IN DIXIE. 4:1 

Bill practiced largely upon their credulity, and 
when he desired a little '^ contraband" fun, he 
would go to the windoW; which was always 
crowded outside with '' secesh," and cry out : 

" What will you have ?" 

'' We want to see a Yankee," they frequently 
answered. 

'' Well, now you see me, and what do you 
think of us ?" 

" What are you 'uns all down here fighting 
we 'uns fur ? 

Bill would reply : '' For a hundred and sixty 
acres of land and your negroes." 

'^ Calico Bill" was a genuine, shrewd and in- 
telligent Yankee, from the State of Maine. He 
gave me a sketch of his history, in which I 
learned that he was teaching in a private family 
in Florida, when the war broke out, was pressed 
into the Confederate service, and had quarreled 
with his captain, who undertook to exer- 
cise an authority over him, incompatible with 
his native freedom. He said he would rather 
meet his fate there than to die in the rebel 
army. He said there were many Northern 
men in their army, and that three-fourths of 
them would vote for the old banner and Con- 
stitution, if uninfluenced by their leaders. ^' But," 
he added, "you see how this fellow does" (refer- 
4^ 



42 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

ring to tlie man lie liaci been drilling) ; ■" and 
there are thousands in their army just as igno- 
rant as he." 

When he went for a bucket of water, he 
would call out, '^Come on, about thirty or forty 
of you infernal rebels, and go with me after 
some water 1" 

In this way he would drill these guards, so 
that those on the outside thought him a Federal, 
while those on the inside believed him to be a 
rebel officer. 

In the rear of the warehouse was a counting- 
room ; and the entire prison could boast but 
one bed, for which I, being the only officer, got 
the preference. It consisted of an old coffee- 
sack, filled with "body-guards," and I reluc- 
tantly accepted its use. 

"While standing near the door, two men came 
in who were dressed in Federal uniforms.. They 
came to me and asked me if I was a Federal 
officer. 

^'No," said I, ''not now; but I was a few 
days ago. I am a prisoner now." 

In conversation with them, I ascertained that 
they were northern men, but, being in the 
South when the war broke out, were pressed, 
like thousands of others, into the rebel army. 
At the battle of Belmont, they deserted and 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 43 

joined the Fourth United States Cavalry, but 
were afterwards taken prisoners at Shiloh, and 
had been recognized as deserters. That day 
they had had their trial before General Bragg, 
who sentenced them to be shot on the following 
Tuesday. I at once became interested in their 
escape; and, forgetting my wounded and pain- 
ful hand, and the disagreeableness of my situa- 
tion, I pondered the fate of these men late into 
that dismal night. On the evening of the same 
day, a piece of file and a knife had been found 
upon a shelf in the prison. "We converted the 
knife into a saw, and with this sawed off one of 
the planks of the floor, thereby making an 
aperture sufficient to permit a man to pass 
through. By this means, these two men, in 
company with '' Calico Bill," made their escape. 
The hole I afterwards carefully concealed by 
placing the bed over it. We had agreed with 
the Tennesseeans that they should answer to 
the names of the escaped prisoners when the 
rebel officer came to the door to call the roll of 
the inmates of the prison. This they continued 
to do until Monday, at which time I was taken 
to Columbus, Mississippi. 

We had only one meal of victuals during the 
forty-eight hours we remained in the prison, 
and there were quite a number of men there 



M BEYOND THE LINES; OK 

who did not get anytliing to eat. But for this 
we had some apology, in the fact that the 
armies were fighting very near us, and about 
all these rebels could do was to lie and boast 
about their success on the previous evening. 
They brought us the news that our whole 
army had been captured, that they had got 
between our forces and the river, and had taken 
twenty-seven thousand prisoners, and that the 
remainder of the army had been driven to the 
gunboats. So incredible and exaggerated were 
their reports, that when they afterward in- 
formed us of the capture of Prentiss and his 
division, we placed no confidence whatever in 
the story. On Sunday, at three o'clock, the 
Texan Eangers came in greatly decimated, 
themselves declaring that they had been cut to 
pieces by our sharpshooters. 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 45 



CHAPTER III. 

Taken to Columbus, Mississii^pi— Visit from the Clergy— 
An Enthusiastic Mute — American Aristocracy — Seces- 
sion Lies — Political and Ecclesiastical Prisoners — Re- 
flections. 

On Monday morning, at ten o'clock, a part of 
the prisoners left Corinth, for Columbus, Missis- 
sippi. Wherever the cars stopped, the wildest 
excitement prevailed. 

" How goes the day ?" was the constant in- 
quiry. 

We were exhibited as some of the trophies 
of the battle. That the people were somewhat 
divided, could easily be perceived from their 
countenances. On the evening of the same 
day, we arrived at Columbus, and there we 
were placed under a heavy guard, in an old 
warehouse ; but the ex-Governor of Mississippi 
came to the prison, and took us to the hotel, 
where we enjoyed supper at his expense. 
There the crowd gathered round us as though 
we were some mammoth traveling menagerie, 
while our hostess kept commenting so earnestly 
upon our handsome appearance, that, in spite 
of my longitudinal neck and limbs, I began to 



46 



suspect myself worthy the compliment. While 
under guard here, I heard men declaring most 
unequivocally their opposition to a Kepublican 
form of government. Two ministers who 
visited me — Eev. Doctor Tensley, of the First 
Baptist Church, and Eev. Mr. Morris, of the 
M. E. Church South — expressed but little con- 
fidence in the Confederate cause. These gen- 
tlemen invited me to their church on Sabbath, 
but the force of circumstances compelled me to 
decline the invitation. These circumstances 
were, close confinement under a heavy guard ; 
and of this fact they were perfectly aware. I 
was led from this to believe that their sym- 
pathy was not genuine. 

After the ministers left me, a deaf and dumb 
man came to the door, and handed me a paper 
which contained an article relative to the recent 
battle of Shiloh. The account began in the 
following self-gratulatory style: "Glory! glorjM 
glory ! Victory ! victory ! 1 write from Yankee 
paper." The writer proceeded in his intense 
and heated manner by saying, '^ Of all the vic- 
tories tha^ have ever been on record, ours is the 
most complete. Their repulse at Bull Eun was 
nothing to compare to our victory at Shiloh. 
General Buell is killed, and General Grant 
wounded and takcji prisoner. Soon we will 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 47 

prove too mucli for them, and tliey will be com- 
pelled to let us alone. Our brave boys have 
driven them to the river, and compelled them to 
flee to their gunboats. The day is ours." 

The mute who had given me the paper was 
so permeated with the prospect of rebel success, 
that he favored hoisting the black flag, and in 
this was sustained by a large number in that 
neighborhood. As the news came slowly in, 
the comments made on the state of affairs were 
as various as they were amusing. Only through 
the friendship and ingenuity of the slaves, who 
were the altaches of the prison, were we privi 
leged to receive papers giving the account of the 
recent fight. When they learned the true con- 
dition of their army after the battle, and realized 
that their boasted victory was a bloody defeat, 
they became more charitable in their opinions. 
I became well satisfied from the conversation I 
overheard from rebel of&cers and visitors, during 
my incarceration here, that a favorite doctrine 
of Dixie is to adjust their " peculiar institution" 
in such a way as to include the poor whites as 
well as the colored people as chattel property, 

I was here visited by two rebel captains 
belonging to Bushrod Johnston's staff) one of 
whom was a lawyer from Virginia, named 
McMoore. These men conversed freely on the 



48 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

times. Both of them expressed themselves as 
decidedly in favor of an American Aristocracy ! 
They argued, with as much (earnestness and 
ability as their vocabulary furnished words, the 
imbecility of Republican government ; and to 
prove the immutability of their ■ p uions, cited 
to me the semi-idiotic and dcgi aded "■ clay- 
eaters" of the South, saying : 

" What do these men know of civil institu- 
tions, and what right have they to vote?" 

Said I, " Gentlemen, is it possible that this is 
the faith of your leaders ?" 

They replied emphatically in the affirmative. 

*' Then, sirs, we of the North have not been 
mistaken on a subject which has been forcing 
itself upon us as a fact, but which we were loth 
to believe could harbor itself even in the basest 
American heart. Since you are frank enough 
to own it, certainly the world should know it, 
and execrate it as it deserves." 

When I became acquainted with the motives 
of these two representative men — how they de- 
spised their poor, ignorant soldier-brethren, 
armed and fighting to fasten fetters on them- 
selves and children for ever, I could but exclaim, 
" Send out thy light and thy truth, O God ! into 
all the earth. Hasten the day when ignorance 
and oppression shall vanish before the free gos- 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 49 

pel, and righteousness through all the land 
prevail." 

From my prison windows I now had ample 
leisure to study the countenances of all classes 
of our rebellious enemies, from Brigadier Gene- 
rals down to the conscript " Sand-hillers." All 
faces were indicative of sadness. From what I 
could see and overhear — the downcast eyes and 
the conflicting stories — I was well satisfied that 
they had been worsted at Shiloh. The officers 
were given to wholesale exaggeration, their 
falsifying tongues gliding from lie to lie with 
.the alacrity of a Baron Munchausen ! These 
prevarications forcibly reminded me of a negro 
boy down South, who undertook to describe to 
his master a storm. 

'' Why, massa, dare was de wonderfullest, de 
tremendus'est post mowerfulest win' stohm dat 
you ever heah. De win' blowed so hard dat it 
blowd de har — de har — all off one man's head • 
Ya'as, de har all off one man's head ! De har !" 

" Now, Sam, you lying rascal, why did'nt the 
wind blow 7jour hair off'?" 

"Why — why — you'se allers bodderin white 
folks when dey'se tellin' detrufe — why, dare vjas 
a 7nan a-stanHn^ a-holdin my har on! Ya'as — a 
man a stan'in' — a man 1" 

"But why was'nt his hair blown off?" 
5 



60 BEYOXL> TJIE LINKS: OR 

" dare was anudder man a-standin' a-holdin' 
his har on ! Ya'as anudder man." 

" But why was'nt his liair blown off?" 

'' Kase — why — w-why, — (you'se bodderen 
you'sef about de wind-stohm) — why dare teas a 
little hoy a-standin a-holdin his har on. Ya''as, a- 
ha-2i little boy — a holden his har on I" 

''But why wasn't the little boy's hair blown 
off, you black scamp ?" 

'' Why — w-why — golly, does'nt you see plain 
'nuff how it was? Why, dare was a man wid 

A BALD HEAD A-STANDIN' A-HOLDIN' HIS HAR 

on!" 

Just so the secession leaders falsify, and thus 
they attempt to bolster up their improbable 
Confederacy. The whole compact is a libelous 
league with darkness ! 

Some of these pompous Southerners would 
treat us with a kind of counterfeit courtesy, 
which became to us even more disgusting than 
outright abuse. The rebel army is made up of 
a passive-minded, illiterate citizenship, officered 
by slave-owners and negro-drivers. The maxi- 
mum of soldiers in a regiment is much smaller 
than in the Federal army, and each company 
has three Lieutenants. This gives the youn ; 
men of aristocratic families an opportunity to 
wear shoulder-straps and lord it over the " poor 
white trash," which compose the rank and file. 



A YANKEE TRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 51 

I learned from tlie prison guards, many of wliom 
would be loyal to the old Stars and Stripes if 
they dared, that the mass of the Southern armies 
have been forced by the most stringent and often 
cruel measures to take up arms against the 
United States Government. 

At this place there were a number of political 
prisoners, and a few prisoners of war. Ones 
we obtained leave to visit them. We were con- 
ducted by a vigilant guard to their apartments 
in an upper room of a verj^ dilapidated building. 
We found about one hundred and fifty Missis- 
sippi citizens, such as were suspected of Union 
sentiments, in a most loathsome situation. 
Among them were three clergymen — one a 
Presbyterian, one a " United Brother," and the 
other a Methodist. There was also a lawyer 
from Kentucky, named Halleck, who had been 
captured by Bishop General Polk. Halleck was 
a subject of the ecclesiastical body over which 
the Bishop ruled ; but his loyalty to church did 
not save him from arrest and trouble for want 
of confidence in arch-treason. He had been 
dragged from his bed by a band of ruffians who 
tied his hands behind him, and forced him into 
I a filthy prison where he lay for seven months 
in close confinement. He was finally permitted 
to share a room with thirty-five or forty other 



52 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

Unionists. At one time they were so shamefully 
neglected, that for three days they were nnsup- 
plied with any food. To prevent absolute starva- 
tion, they were obliged to beg the guards to 
assist them in stealing a barrel of soap-grease, 
which they devoured with a greedy relish ! This 
was in the midst of the boasted chivalry of 
Columbus, Mississippi ! 

I should not forget to mention here the names 
of the ex-Governor of the State, Mr. Whitefield, 
and his son. They had human hearts, and ex- 
tended to us some degree of kindness and 
sympathy. But these friendships were rare ex- 
ceptions, and all sufficient, if reported to rebel 
officials, to call down vengeance on their heads. 
The people, to avoid suspicion and imprison- 
ment, were compelled to practice all manner of 
apparent cruelties. In this building we began 
to feel the hateful oppressor's power. We could 
hardly believe that any portion of our once 
united and happy country could be so soon, so 
darkly blighted by accursed treason ! 

While looking on tho old, rusty walls of my 
prison-house, mocked and insulted by the jeer- 
ing outside multitudes, I had time and heart for 
reflection. I thought of a familiar cottage amid 
the hills of Ohio, at that very hour all fair and 
free in the spring sunlight, the orchard bios- 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 53 

soms, the opening flowers in garden and arbor, 
the dewj meadow grass, and the thousand 
charming scenes of my home ! I thought of 
wife and children there — how they would 
wonder and fear at receiving no tidings from 
the one they loved. I thought of God and his 
cause — my country and her honor — my flag 
and her insulted glory. I thought of the poor 
Southern conscript, and the despised and fet- 
tered slave of the cotton-field, and my soul was 
stirred with mingled hope and compassion. 
Thinking of my home, my friends, my country, 
my wounds, my prison, I could but say : 

"Patience, my soul, tlie Saviour's feet were worn ; 

The Saviour's heart and hands were weary too ; 
His garments stained, and travel-worn, and old, 

His vision blinded with a pitying dew. 
Love thou the path of sorrow that he trod. 

Toil on, and wait in patience for thy rest ; 
Oh ! country that I love, we soon shall see 

Thy glorious cause triumphant, crowned and blest." 

"While reflecting upon the inconsistency of se- 
cession, and witnessing the persecutions heaped 
upon those who were loyal to the flag and truth 
of our fathers, I almost faltered in my reli- 
gious faith, for many of these leaders in treason 
were professed Christians. But, through the 
power of prayer, came a satisfying answer to 
5* 



54 BEYOND TIIE LINES; OH 

my questioning fear. I felt that the Lord Om- 
nipotent was just — that his grace and gospel 
were for the poor and the oppressed. 

I remembered the day when the Saviour ap- 
peared to me — when denser, darker prison- 
bands were sundered. Then old things passed 
away. Then came the strength to believe and 
trust in a Higher Power — an Infinite Deliverer. 
Kemembering when the friendly voice had 
spoken to my troubled heart, '^ Peace, be still," 
even in prison, and hated of men for Christ's 
and country's sake, I could exclaim : 

** Faith of our fathers, living still, 

In spite of dungeon, fire, and sword ; 

Oh ! how our hearts beat high with joy 
Where'er we hear that glorious word I 

Faith of our fathers 1 holy faith 1 

We will be true to thee till death I" 

Though a prisoner of war, a soldier can be a 
Christian. He realizes in trial and trouble that 
the Judge of all the earth does right. 



A YANKEE PRISONEK LOOSE IN DIXIE. 



CHAPTEE lY. 

The Wounded from Shiloh — Inquisitive Negroes — An 
Abomination — A Striking Contrast — Tom — Attempted 
Escape — An Ingenious Darkey — Rebel Fare — The Irish. 
Sergeant — Narrow Escape — Mending Clothes and Getting 
News — Horrible Scenes in Prison — A Discussion. 

During my imprisonment, many wounded 
soldiers from Corinth, were brought to Colum- 
bus. The leading men were painfully struck at 
the loss of General Albert Sidney Johnson. 
My prison-life was romantic and instructive, 
and I endeavored to make a partial atonement 
for its deprivations. The negroes, whose busi- 
ness it was to bring our victuals, and keep the 
prison in some sort of order, were generally 
inquisitive in their looks, and often in their 
words. They wondered why so many white 
men were confined and guarded. I was much, 
interested with two negro waiters, who came 
daily to our room, one about twelve, and the 
other about fifteen years of age. Said Greorge, 
the younger : 

''Massa, when's you gwine to take Mem- 
phis?" 

*' Why ? George !" said one of our party. 



56 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

"Kase my mother's dar, and she'll be free 
when de Linkum sogers gits Memphis." 

"George," said I, ^' what do you know about 
freedom ?" 

" Why, Lor' massa, I know'd if you'd whip 
'em up dar, us colored folks 'ud all be free, an' 
dat's what makes dem rebels fight like de debel. 
God bless you massa, I knows why. When de 
war broke out, I was livin' up in old Kentuek, 
and dey say now we'se got to take dis here 
nigger off, or else de Yankees will hab him. I 
hoped and prayed dat de Yankees would git 
me. God bless you, massa, I hiowsr 

From this time I began to be more than ever 
interested in the negroes. I discovered a latent 
talent in the despised race. I resolved to in- 
vestigate this new field of inquiry. The older 
one of these waiters and myself, had afterward 
many a friendly interview. He told me that he 
had been reared in New Orleans. His father 
was a white man, who often comforted his inno- 
cent victim, by saying that her offspring should 
be sent North to freedom. But when hostili- 
ties began, he entered the army, forgetful alike 
of his promises and his crimes. This outraged 
woman was afterward hired to a planter, to 
work in a cotton-field, while her son was sent 



A YANKEE FKISOXLR LOOSE IN DIXIE. 57 

to Coiumbus, as a hotel waiter. Such, thought 
I, are some of the barbarities of this horrid 
syutem of enslavement. 

About this time a Colonel was appointed as 
commandant of this post, vice ex- Governor 
Whitefield. Our boarding and location were 
now changed, and we were placed in a back room 
and fed on scanty rations of corn-bread minus 
salt, and an indifferent supply of tainted meat, 
which emitted a very disagreeable effluvia. 

While in this condition, and lying on the bare 
floor, a citizen entered and informed us that his 
brother-in-law was then a prisoner in Columbus, 
Ohio. He said he had been taken at Fort Donel- 
son, and that his wife had that day received a 
letter from him, and that he was walking the 
streets of Columbus, carrying his side-arms, and 
boarding at the American House ! 

This statement aroused my indignation. I 
never before felt so keenly my condition, and 
when he attributed the lenity of our government 
to cowardice and a disposition to admit the su- 
periority of southern claims and dignity, and 
stigmatized us as ''invaders" of their soil and 
suffering jugtly as such, I could not restrain the 
fiery wrath that burned within me. I have a 
faint recollection of seeing the man hurrying in 



58 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

greedy haste from the prison, doubtless impelled 
by the fear of something to come. 

Again we were indebted to the kind services 
of our ever-faithful and unwavering friends of 
the race despised. One, who flourished under 
the sobriquet of "Tom," rendered us efficient 
aid. Our object was to escape from the prison, 
and for this purpose Tom brought us a rope and 
chisel. With the chisel, I cut a hole through 
the prison floor, but after laboring faithfully for 
some time, I discovered that the room below 
was filled to the ceiling with boxes and bales 
containing commissary stores. I had arranged 
with Tom, who had brought me a desiderated 
map of Mississippi and Tennessee, to leave that 
night, he occupying a station on the outside, 
ready to aid me if necessary, and supplied with 
sufficient provisions for my contemplated flight. 

When I found myself foiled in my effort to 
pass through the floor, I turned my attention to 
the hearth of the room, which I took up, intend- 
ing to let myself down at that point, and make 
my escape through a window below, which was 
covered by a projecting roof. But just as I was 
about to take away the key-stone of the hearth, 
I heard the guard cry out, '^ Corporal o' de guard, 
post number fd','''' which arrested my attention, 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 59 

and moving toward the window, discovered in 
the darkness of the night, that the rain was fall- 
ing in torrents. Again my ear canght the voice 
of the guard, who, in his peculiar Southern in- 
tonations, was addressing the corporal. 

'^I's gittin' all wet; put me undah dat ar 
windah, dar." 

So the guard was stationed under the window 
where I had contemplated making my exit, 
and all my plans, for the nonce, were frustrated. 

Early the next morning Tom came to the 
door and said : 

" Why you don' didn't come, massa ?" 

^' Why, Tom, that room below is full of com- 
missary stores." 

'' Why, massa, I don' ought to have told you 
dat, but I don' didn't know it." 

Tom came in, and I exhibited the hole in the 
floor, and assured him that if the fact of its ex- 
istence were not concealed, I should be either 
sent to jail or hung. He looked at it, and fruit- 
ful as he was of expedients, soon devised a 
remedy. He first tacked a piece of carpet over 
the hole, and afterward, finding that it would 
yield if trodden upon, constructed a rude seat 
immediately above it. 

This, and other manifestations of intellectual 
and mechanical aptness, led me into a train of 



60 BEYOlsD THE LINES; OR 

reflection concerning a race so decried and dc 
graded. I asked with Campbell — 

" Was man ordained the slave of man to toil, 
Yoked with the brutes, and fettered to the soil ; 
"Weighed in a tyrant's balance with his gold ? 
No ! Nature stamped us in a heavenly mould ! 
She bade no wretch his thankless labor urge, 
Nor, trembling, take the pittance and the scourge." 

From this time I became deeply interested in 
my African protege. He seemed keenly alive 
to his condition. He told me in a conversation 
that '' the colored people were all heathens — 
they knew nothing. I was talking," he added, 
^'with massa and missus dis mornin', and 
missus asked me, ' Tom what you tink of dem 
Yankees V 

" ' Ah,' says I, ' missus, I don' don't like em at 
all. Dey won't have nothin' to say to a nigger.' 
Den missus said, ses she. 

'"Tom, don't you know dese Yankees are 
comin' down har to confisticate all you cullod 
people?' Now, she tink I don' don't know 
what ' confisticate' means ; spec' she tinks I tought 
it was to kill. God bless you, massa, I knows 
it is to free de darkies^ and den dis pore nigger 
have hoss and carriage, if I don' can work and 
pay for 'em. While I was talkin' wid ma?sa 
and missus, I stppd and shake all over. I tejls 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 61 

'em dat I is so 'feared dat dey would come dat 
1 don't know what for to do. God bless you, 
don't you link dey was fool enough to tink 1 
was afeerd. Ha ! ha ! ha !" 

The hours wore heavily on in that dreary 
prison-house. Tom brought our food in an old 
trough, which had doubtless been employed in 
feeding swine, and we were compelled to take in 
food in genuine primitive style. In a short 
time, we received intelligence that we were to 
he removed to another apartment in the same 
building, and I began to feel a degree of 
uneasiness lest my effort to escape should be 
discovered by the hole in the floor. Tom again 
befriended me. He ascertained that u printing- 
press was to be put up in the room the prisoners 
had occupied, and while assisting in the work 
succeeded in placing a portion of the stationary 
materials in such a manner as to effectually 
secrete the aperture. 

As I have already intimated, our supply of 
food grew "smaller by degrees and horribly 
less." Our gastronomic propensities were how- 
ever, occasionally regaled by some delicacies (?) 
smuggled to us by Tom and his brother Pete. 
We ^id not care then to inquire whether they 
obtained them honestly or not, but the proba- 



62 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

bility is that they were appropriated from their 
master's larder. 

One of our chief annoyances in this prison 
was in the person of a diminutive, pompous, 
and arrogant Irishman named Mackey, who 
seemed to rejoice in the title of "sergeant," 
which he took great care to frequently ventilate 
in the presence of the prisoners. He was an 
orderly of the provost-marshal, and the fellow, 
clothed with a little brief authority, seemed to 
be impressed with the sole idea that tyranny 
was the only attribute of one so exalted. Once, 
when he came into my quarters, I asked him 
what object he could have in the rebel army, 
and what profit he expected to derive from the 
establishment of a confederacy ? 

"Enough, be jabers," he replied. "You 
Yankees want to free our nagers, be sure, and 
we're all ferninst that here, and we won't submit 
at all, at all." 

" How many negroes have you, Mr. Mackey," 
I asked. 

" Why,~sure, and be jabers, and I haven't a 
nager in the vrorld." 

" Well, sir, what interest then can you have 
in this war ?" 

" Och, and be sure, a poor tool of an Irish- 
man can hardly git a wee jab of work now, 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 63 

and if these divels were free, we'd have to go 
beggin' foriver." 

So, selfishness, in the guise of slavery and 
pride, forms the substratum of the so-called 
Southern Confederacj. 

On further conversation with the sergeant, I 
learned that he had really no interest in the 
cause of the South, that he was not in the army 
from choice, but as a means of obtaining a 
livelihood, and that he bitterly cursed rebellion 
in his heart as the prolific parent of untold 
evils. 

Our new room fronted the hotel, and from 
some of the officers we obtained permission to 
stand upon the balcony of the prison during 
a part of each evening. On one occasion we 
were ordered back by the guards. I hesitated 
a moment ; but in that moment a guard leveled 
his piece and drew the trigger. Fortunately 
for me the gun missed fire, but at the same 
moment another guard fired, and killed a deaf 
man who had thrust his head from an upper 
window. Eealizi ng tha danger to whicli I was 
exposed, I instantly withdrew. 

On the same evening, I noticed an unusual 
excitement among the rebel officials. To ascer- 
tain its cause I again had i^ecourse to Tom. He 
requested me to tear a hole in my coat, and 



64 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

then order liim, in tlie presence of tlie guards, 
to take it to some tailor for repairs. He in- 
sisted that I should speak angrily to him, for 
such a course would more effectually deceive 
the guards. I did as he had directed, and he de- 
murred, declaring that he wished dem "Yankees 
would mend dar own close." The guards in a 
peremptory tone commanded him to get the 
coat, and have it repaired forthwith. This was 
what Tom desired ; and with many protesta- 
tions of hatred toward the whole Yankee race, 
he, with great apparent reluctance, carried the 
garment from the prison. 

In a short time he returned, seemingly in the 
same mood, and with well-feigned indignation, 
handed over the coat. On examination I found 
a newspaper in one of the pockets which con- 
tained an account of the evacuation of Corinth, 
the surrender of Island No. 10, and the 
bombardment of Fort Pillow, New Orleans, 
and other important information of which we 
had previously known nothing! This little 
artifice and its successful management, while it 
furnished me with very cheering intelligence, 
also gave me an elevated opinion of Tom's 
native talents. 

Other prisoners continued to arrive, many of 
whom had been wounded in the battle of 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 65 

Shiloli, and new quarters were prepared for 
them. They v^ere incarcerated in an old stone 
building not far from our prison, and although 
wounded and almost famished, were compelled 
to lie upon the hard floor, their wounds un- 
dressed, and their physical wants unattended 
to. I obtained permission to visit them, 
and as I entered the house my eyes were 
pained by a sight that beggars description. 
Eighteen prisoners, ''crushed by pain and 
smart," occupied the room. There were men 
in that room who had been wounded for two 
weeks, and who, during that whole time, had 
'; not received the slightest attention. The result 
had been that their wounds were tainted with 
putrid flesh, and alive with crawling maggots ! 
I obtained a list of their names at the time, but, 
as the reader will hereafter learn, was subse- 
quently compelled to burn it. The only 
apology the rebel authorities could offer for 
this brutal neglect was that they were too 
busily employed in attending to the wants of 
their own to look to the welfare of others. 

Many of the men died, some from their 

wounds, and others from disease. The sad and 

sickening scenes of prison life daily harrowed 

up the soul's keener susceptibilities, and one 

6* 



66 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

by one tliey yielded up tlieir lives a sacrifice 
for liberty. 

On one occasion, I beard tbe guards engaged 
in an animated discussion concerning tlieir par- 
ticipation in tbe war. One of them remarked : 

"Bill, you and I are botb poor men, and 
wbat in tbe name of God are we figbting for?" 

''Wby, Tom, you baven't turned traitor to 
tbe Confederacy, bave you?" 

"No," said be, "I can't say tbat I bave, but 
I'd like migbty well to know wbat profit tbis 
whole thing will be to us poor people. I bave 
a family, you know ; and I bave been forced to 
leave tbem, and here I am. You know bow 
everything bes riz. There's flour now, and 
you can't git a barrel for less nor forty dollars, 
and pork is fifty dollars a hundred, and there 
aint a bit of salt to be got for love nor money. 
Now, I'd jist like to know wbat a man's family 
is going to do under such circumstances ?" 

Bill answered by saying : 

" Tbis war aint a-going to last long. How'll 
tbem fellers do without cotton. They'll bave 
to give in afore two months, for all tbeir manu- 
factures bave stopped now." 

" Don't you believe a word of tbat 'ere stuff. 
It's all gammon, I tell you. They can do 
without us a great deal better nor we can do 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 67 

"witliout iheni. They've got the whole world to 
resort to, and can git their supplies anywhere 
they please." 

"Yes, I know that; but then they haint got 
anything other nations want. It was our cotton 
what brought all the gold and silver into the 
country." 

" There's that old song again. Why, they've 
got the best perducing land in the world. And 
their corn and cattle aint to be sneezed at the 
world over." 

''Well, that may all be true," rejoined the 
other, " but they can't whip us." 

"Well, suppose we whip them, what will 
be gained ?" 

"Why, we'll stop the 'tarnal thieves from 
stealing our niggers." 

" Now that's a grand mistake. Don't you see 
every nigger in the South will break right for 
the North, for there won't be no Fugitive Slave 
Law then. And then you know what a dread- 
ful time we had not long ago up Lowndes 
county with the niggers, for this here country's 
got twice as many niggers as whites." 

At this an angry dispute arose between them, 
one declaring the other an abominable Yankee, 
and the other as stoutly denying it. Oaths 
were freely bandied, and the loyal Southerner 



68 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

threatened to call the corporal of the guard, 
and have the other arrested. The latter in the 
mean time continued to protest that he had said 
nothing detrimental to Southern interests. 

" Well, how did you know," said the rabid 
secessionist, " about the cattle and corn in New 
York, if you had never lived there ?" 

"But I have been there, though I never lived 
in that region." 

'^Well, if that's the case," responded his 
antagonist, '' you had better keep mighty quiet 
about it, or we'll treat you like we did John 
Peterson, that miserable Yankee that we hung 
last week to a pine tree." 

Just then the relief- guard came, and the con- 
versation ceased. I noted down at the time the 
dialogue as it occurred, gave the manuscript 
subsequently to my friend Captain Steadman, 
who, in connection with other papers, as the 
reader will presently learn, carried it to Wash- 
ington city, where I received it from him. 

From all this, which was spoken in a most 
angry and boisterous manner, and while I held 
my ear to the key-hole of the prison-door, I 
learned what excessive antipathy the Southern 
people, as a mass, entertain towards persons of 
Northern birth. As the reader follows me 
through this book, other evidences of Southern 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 69 

ignorance, malice, and inhumanity will arise, 
all of which I witnessed or experienced, and all 
of which are related with no spirit of hatred, 
but as an "ower true tale." I do not relate 
these facts in the spirit of a politician, nor for 
political purposes ; for the nativity, education, 
and political antecedents of myself and of the 
entire family from which I sprung, have de- 
veloped a warm support of Democratic prin- 
ciples. To these I yet ardently adhere, though 
positively and absolutely repudiating that form 
thereof which in the slightest degree afiiliatea 
with treason or oppression. 



70 BEYOND THE LINES ; OR 



CHAPTER Y. 

Southern Inhumanity — A Prison Telegraph — Mobile — Con- 
versation with a Fire-Eater— Negro Sale Stables— A Bad 
Sign — Mule Beef — Montgomery — In the Penitentiary- 
Felon Soldiers— Hanging for Theft— Visit to a Con- 
demned Prisoner — Who Shall Answer ? 

Our condition now became so painful and 
distressing, that, as a last resort, we determined 
to petition the authorities for a redress of our | 
grievances. We had neither beds nor blankets, 
and the allowance of rations doled out to us 
was insufficient to sustain life. A lieutenant in 
the Confederate service, a poor, illiterate fellow, 
not possessed of education sufficient to call the 
muster-roll correctly, entered the prispn and 
threatened to place Major Crockett — of whom 
we have spoken before — in irons, simply be- 
cause he had referred, in the Lieutenant's pre- 
sence, in no very favorable terms, to the character 
of our treatment. We had made application 
personally to Colonel McClain, then command- 
ant of the post, and who, we learned, was a 
professed Christian, We were careful to appeal 
to his Christianity as a means of awakening an 
interest in our behalf. His reply was as follows : 
" You invaders ! you abolitionists ! you that 



X 'I 

I! 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 71 

are stealing our property! you talk about 
Christianity ! You should be the last men to 
utter a word on that subject." 

A lieutenant in our ranks, named Herbert, 
answered him by saying : 

''If your so-called Southern Confederacy 
cannot furnish us with enough to eat, just in- 
form us and we will acquaint our government 
of the fact." 

This seemed to irritate the doughty Colonel, 
and he replied very fiercely : 

"■ I'll let you know that we have a govern- 
ment strong enough to hold you. You will 
have to go into close confinement," 

In a short time four men with loaded guns 
entered, and took Lieutenant Herbert from the 
prison. . What was to be his fate we knew not, 
but in five days he returned, his appearance 
indicating that he had been exposed to severe 
treatment. He told me that he was taken to 
the old county jail, was there incarcerated in a 
damp, filthy, and bedless cell, swarming with 
odious vermin, and from which a negro had 
recently been taken to be executed. This 
barbarous outrage was inflicted for the sole 
purpose, in the language of his tormentor, *'of 
letting him know that there was a Southern 
Confederacy." 



72 

The sick and wounded prisoners in the room 
above us were suffering intensely, and we were 
not allowed the privilege of visiting them. In 
order to hold any communication at all with 
the inmates above, we were compelled to resort 
to an expedient which answered our purpose 
for the time. We obtained a small wire, and 
by letting it down from the upper window 
to the one below, and attaching a written 
communication to it, opened up a kind of 
telegraphic connection between the two depart- 
ments of the prison. In this way we were 
daily informed of the transactions of our friends 
above. 

We were now about to leave the prison, and 
we quitted it, feeling with Bishop King, that 

** A prison is in all things like a grave,* 
Where we no better privileges have 
Than dead men ; nor so good." 

We were next taken to Mobile, Alabama. 
On our way thither, I conversed with a number 
of Southrons, among whom was an insignificant 
personage from South Carolina. He complained 
because their officers were not allowed to have 
their servants with them. He called it one of 
the most inhuman deprivations imaginable ! 

"Sir," said I," we have been treated like 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 73 

beasts and half-starved here on your southern 
soil ; what do you think of that ?" 

" 0," he replied, " that's all right enough for 
you 'uns ; but we belong to the first families of 
South Carolina!" 

" Your logic is vain, sir, for we of the free 
North recognize no officer in the army as made 
of better stuff than the least drummer-boy in 
the service. Your ' first families' were the prime 
movers in this rebellion, being the degenerate 
descendants of bankrupt royalists and luckless 
adventurers." The truth cut him severely, and 
he began to curse the " mudsills" of the North, 
ridiculing that pure democracy which lifts up 
the poor and levels down the rich. When I 
referred to our free schools and our general in- 
formation as a people, he raved like a madman. 
Ilis ignorance boiled over in froth and fury, 
only to emphasize the corrupting effects of the 
bastard aristocracy of the South. 

We arrived in Mobile on Sabbath morning, 
the 26th of May. Here, too, we could detect 
an undercurrent of Union sentiment in the hu- 
mane treatment we received. I knew full well, 
however, the odium in which the Mobilians held 
all who opposed human bondage as legalized in 
the Confederacy. I felt that we were indeed 
and barbarians. We were 
7 



74 BEYOXD THE LINES; OR 

driven like yoked bondmen to the heart of the 
city, and there halted in the crowded streets for 
about two hours and a half beneath a sweltering 
Alabama sun, after which we were thrust into 
the negro sale stables. Of course we were fa- 
tigued and sickened by such outrageous treat- 
ment, but we bore it all as patiently as grace 
would allow. As we entered these human chat- 
tel stalls where many poor hearts had sorrowed 
before, we noticed this inscription over our sta- 
ble door. 



During our stay in this place there was quite 
a stir among the rebels. The astounding fact 
was revealed that the mules slain at Shiloh had 
been barreled up and forwarded to Mobile to 
feed Yankee prisoners I When this abomina- 
tion was made known to the commandant, he 
immediately ordered the mule-beef to be thrown 
into the river ; and in order to redeem his gov- 
ernment from the merited contempt of the civil- 
ized world, he published the facts in the Mobile 
papers. A copy of a daily paper containing 
the information was furnished us by a negro, 
and we had the satisfaction of reading the history 
of our rations I 

The commandant's motives in publishing this 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 75 

barbarity were not appreciated by tbe chival- 
rous (?) authorities, and he was himself arrested 
and imprisoned for an act that even cannibals 
might blush to condemn. 

The negroes, who were shrewder and more 
manly than their masters, were our faithful 
friends and news-bearers. They all understood 
how to furnish us papers in the manner de- 
scribed in a previous chapter. The results of 
the mule-beef investigation plainly proved that 
the whole transaction was sanctioned by the 
Government. It was not an individual specu- 
lation by an unprincipled army contractor, but 
an official outrage, perpetrated by the chivalrous 
Confederacy ! 

From Mobile we were taken to Selma, from 
thence to Tuscaloosa, and from thence to Mont- 
gomery. Here we were placed in the peniten- 
tiary over night, until arrangements could be 
made for our accommodation in the military 
prison. Here we shared the fare of criminals, 
which proved to be the best I ever received in 
Dixie. As to the truthfulness of the report that 
the Confederacy had liberated their felons as 
soldiers, I am not prepared to speak. But while 
I was in the Montgomery penitentiar}^, during 
the brief space of thirty hours, two inmates were 
released and paid eight hundred dollars each to 



76 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

enter the service as substitutes. This I wit- 
nessed. The keeper of the prison informed me, 
on inquiring the nature of their crimes, that 
they were murderers. From reliable sources I 
learned that many criminals, from different 
southern prisons, were received into the army 
as soldiers. The two I saw were desperate- 
looking men. 

While here I was deeply impressed at seeing 
a negro in an adjoining cell under condemnation 
of death. In order to frighten him to make 
such confessions as his accusers desired, the 
rope with which he was to be suspended from 
the gallows, was put in the cell with the culprit. 
I asked the keeper the nature of the man's of- 
fence, and was told that he was sentenced to die 
for stealing a watch. 

" What ! are you going to hang a man for 
stealing a watch ?" 

"0, yes," said my informant, "we must be 
severe with these niggers, or we couldn't live for 
them." 

*'But he is a valuable-looking piece of pro- 
perty. " 

" True, sir, but the State is obligated to pay 
one-half his value to the master, and he was ap- 
praised at sixteen hundred dollars, — so you see 
only one-half the loss will fall upon his master." 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 77 

All this was spoken witli that serious business 
air which showed a real sympathy with the 
slaveholder who was about to suffer the loss of 
eight hundred dollars I 

On account of my crippled hand and general 
debility, I was privileged to walk about the hall. 
There I could see the doomed man who was so 
soon to suffer the ignominious death of the scaf- 
fold. The keeper's sympathy was altogether 
with the owner of the negro ; but he congratu- 
lated himself in the master's behalf by saying 
that, since the beginning of the war, negroes 
were poor sale, and that for the owner of this 
condemned one to get half his appraised value 
would be very consoling in the hour of trouble ! 
One circumstance in connection with this inci- 
dent gladdened my heart. On one occasion I 
overheard two men conversing with the negro 
in his cell. They were godly men, and had 
come to offer the sympathy of supplication in 
prayer. One of these visitors was gifted in a 
special manner. His pleadings before the court 
of heaven in behalf of his unfortimate fellow- 
man, were touchingly eloquent. He sang and 
prayed alternately, and with tearful eyes and 
tender tones, pointed the criminal to the Saviour 
who blessed the dying thief on Calvary. But 
all his instructions and persuasions seemed alike 
7* 



78 BEYOND THE LINES; Oil 

in vain. The stoic prisoner remained hard- 
hearted and unmoved. 

I asked and obtained permission from the 
keeper to speak a few words to the man so soon 
to die. The conditions on which I obtained the 
favor were that my instructions should be given 
in the keeper's presence. 

Looking through the iron bars at my sinful 
but unfortunate auditor, I said, 

" Do you believe that Christ died for all ?" 

"I don't know, massa," he replied. 

" Well, you know something about the Bible, 
don't you?" 

"No, massa." 

'' Have you never heard the Gospel preached?" 

" Yes, massa, I used to hear old parson Cooper 
preach, and I guess dat was what he preached 
about." 

" Can you read ?" 

"No, massa." 

" Did you ever pray ?" 

" No, massa. I'se heard folks a-prayin'. My 
massa never prayed like dis nigga," — referring 
to the visitor who had been praying with him 
in the cell. 

*' Well, my dear fellow, you know you have 
to die, don't you ?" 

"Yes, massa." 



A YANKEE PmSONER LUuSE liN DUiltL. 79 

"What do you think will become of you 
when you die ?" 

"I dun know, massa." 

"Did you ever talk with white people on 
this subject ?" 

" IN'o, massa." 

Here our conversation was interrupted by 
the keeper, who told me I must return to my 
cell. I had no further opportunity to converse 
with the poor negro prisoner. My thoughts 
troubled me. I reflected on the destiny of 
these immortal beings, thus oppressed in body 
and soul by their tyrant masters. What a 
fearful weight of responsibility rests somewhere ! 
Who shall give account in the great day for 
the ignorance of the four millions of slaves, 
going up to judgment from a land of boasted 
Jght and knowledge ? This slave was a repre- 
sentative man. Although he knew little about 
secular matters, he had opportunity to learn 
even less of religion ! 

But despite all the efforts to keep the slaves 
in ignorance, both by legal enactments and 
tyrannical vigilance, very many of them gained 
a surprising fund of information. What an 
accursed system of wrong is .that which locks 
the Bible from the homes and hearts of the 
poor ! May the uttermost overthrow come upon 



80 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

an institution that prohibits the education of 
any class or color of God's children! 

The next day, before leaving the prison, I 
asked permission to visit the colored convict 
once more, but the privilege was not granted. 
That very day a dark man was hung, and a 
darker crime registered in the book of Judg- 
ment-day accounts, the penalty of which will 
by-and-by rest upon the head of the guilty per- 
petrators. 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 81 



CHAPTER YI. 

A New Prison — Murder of Lieutenant Bliss — In Irons — 
Yankee Ingenuity — Rebel Ignorance — Parson Rogers — 
Faithful Servants— Bold and Successful Escape of 
Prisoners — Captain Troy — A Blindfold Journey — A 
Traitor. 

We were now conducted to onr new quarters 
in the military prison^ a description of which I 
will attempt. The side walls were of brick, 
twenty inches in thickness, and thirteen feet 
high. The ends were closed by massive iron- 
clad wooden gates, extending the whole width 
of the prison. The room was about two hun- 
dred feet long, and forty in width. It was used 
formerly as a cotton depot. There was on 
either side a narrow shed-roof, sloping inward, 
extending two-thirds of the entire length of 
the building. Beneath this shelter were six 
hundred soldiers, and about one hundred and 
fifty political prisoners. 

Near this prison, Lieutenant Bliss, of Illinois, 
one of the noblest and truest men I ever knew, 
and a minister of the gospel, was murdered. 
The circumstances of this cruel outrage are as 



82 * BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

follows: One beautiful morning in May, the 
Lieutenant, being somewhat indisposed, and 
desiring to breathe the fresh and fragrant air 
without our prison walls, asked permission of 
the Captain of the Guard, to go to an adjacent 
house and get his canteen filled with fresh milk. 
With considerable reluctance the privilege was 
granted, and the Lieutenant and myself were 
allowed to go on our errand, under a guard of 
four armed men. Upon our arrival at the 
house. Bliss handed his canteen through the 
window, where a ladj received it, and in accord- 
ance with his request, filled it with milk, and 
passed it back to him. At this moment, one 
of the guards muttered some undistinguishable 
order, which I was unable to understand, 
although I was nearer the guard than Bliss. 
The command, whatever it was, of course could 
not be obeyed ; but the guard instantly raised 
his gun. Bliss saw it, and remarked pleasantly, 
though a little excited : 

" You are not going to shoot me, are you ?" 
No sooner were his words uttered, than the 
gun was fired and the bullet pierced the heart 
of my gallant comrade. His last words were, 
''Brother, I'm shot!" 'I stood amazed and 
dumb with indignation over the bleeding corpse 
of my faithful companion, the three remaining 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 83 

loaded guns pointed at me. From this scene of 
murder I was forced back to the prison. I felt 
it my duty to report this inhuman act to the 
commandant, and ask redress, by having the 
reckless guard punished. What was my as- 
tonishment and indignation to learn, afterward, 
that that very guard, for that very act, was 
granted thirty days' furlough as a reward. The 
only apology oflered was, that possibly the 
guard misunderstood his instructions ! I ven- 
tured to tell the commandant. Captain Troy, 
my opinion of such conduct, and to his face 
called the outrage by its proper name, a bloody 
murder, committed under his guilty authority. 
As I might have expected, this plain language 
brought down his vengeful wrath, and he re- 
plied : 

*' I will put you in irons, sir." 

I could but reply, thinking of my dear, lost 
comrade : 

" I am in your power, sir, irons or no irons ; 
but you murdered my sick friend, and are guilty 
of shedding his blood !" 

For my impertinence, I was handcuffed and 
made to suffer the cruel spite of my hateful ene- 
mies. 

These things occured in the city of Mont- 



84 BEYOND THE LINE^; OR 

gomeiy, Alabama, among the chivalry of the 
South. 

We often suftered for water in this cotton-shed 
prison. Some of our boys resolved to dig a 
well within the walls. In digging, they came to 
a stratum of potters' clay, by which, after the 
well was completed, they passed many a leisure 
hour in manufacturing little wares, such as pipes, 
rings, cups, &c., all of which found a ready sale 
among the rebels, and commanded a fair price 
in Confederate shinplasters. The ingenuity of 
our Yankee boys was a constant marvel to the 
stupid Southrons. We received sufficient pocket 
money by our manufactures to furnish us with 
many little conveniences and comforts. One of 
our comrades, who had formerly been an en- 
graver, and who had no conscientious scruples 
about using the rebel currency to the best ad- 
vantage, was very skilful in changing five cent 
scrip to fifties, and many of the fives that 
were passed in for our wares, passed out fifties 
for gingerbread ! 

One day quite a commotion prevailed among 
the rebel peddlers in our prison. A gaunt, gaw- 
king fellow had received one of these changed 
bills, but was not quite satisfied of its genuine- 
ness. A motley crowd were huddled around 
him trying to unravel the mystery. I was called 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 85 

by the holder of the bill to explain. Said the , 
puzzled critic, holding out the suspected paper 
and pointing to the redundant cipher at the right 
of the five : 

"Look here, Capt'n, at this tarnal round 
thing here. This thing ortn't fur to be here. " 

'' Well, sir," said I, " I can't help it ; why did 
you put it there ?" 

" I didn't put it thar, nuther. I got it uv 
,^that thar feller," said he, pointing to a bright- 
eyed soldier about seventeen years of age, who 
sat looking on with apparent indifference, but 
who was greatly enjoying the confusion of the 
ignorant butternut, who had just sense enough 
to know that something was wrong, but no in- 
genuity to detect the imposition. I do not jus- 
tify this money-making trick, but, under the 
circumstances, its sinfulness is somewhat di- 
minished. 

We were then more than a thousand miles 
from home, surrounded by a bloodthirsty and 
infuriated mob, robbers of our government, and 
oppressors of our fellow-men. We were dragged 
to that prison half- starved and moneyless. Oar 
rations consisted of a bit of spoiled beef not 
larger than your two fingers, a small slice of 
coarse corn-bread without salt, and this only 
twice a day. Whatever more than this we 
3 



86 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

received, we were compelled to buy at fabulous 
prices. While in Montgomery I became ac- 
quainted with a clergyman named Kogers, a 
member of the Methodist Church South, who 
had spent many years in the itineracy, and who 
was a chaplain in the Mexican war. Mr. Eogers 
was a man of fine talent, vast experience, and 
apparently of great piety. He had been an 
intimate friend, in other years, of Parson Brown- 
low, which circumstance made his acquaintance 
an interesting one to me. He had been arrested, 
and, without a trial hurried from his motherless 
children to this gloomy prison. The old divine 
gave me an account of some of his sufferings. 
He had been frequently imprisoned for his loyal 
sentiments ; and in a few instances made hair- 
breadth escapes from lynching. While he was 
in prison he preached for us. The gospel sound 
was glorious to hear, even beneath the cloud 
that rested upon us. Though in bonds, we 
could listen to the voice of truth — the truth 
that makes us free indeed. 

I was here again amused and benefited by 
the ingeniousness of the colored people, of 
whom so many wiseacres are constantly seeking 
to prove a natural imbecility. Yery often these 
shrewd observers would anticipate our wants, 
and bring us such articles as we reallj^ most 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 87 

desired. Sometimes an apparently careless 
lounger would lean himself against our prison- 
gates, as if to rest himself, and while facing 
the guardS; his skilful fingers would slip a file 
or a knife through some small aperture to an 
inside Yankee. These implements were always 
in demand for the purpose of making rings 
and trinkets from refuse beef bones. And in 
case of a contemplated escape from prison, 
such helps as these are invaluable. It was a 
constant perplexity to the '' Clay-eaters," to see 
the negroes so well posted on war matters. 
Though the unhappy race have been down- 
trodden and abused to an outrageous extent, 
which nothing short of eternity will adequately 
punish, yet they are more intellectual and 
virtuous than the majority of the whites in 
Secessia. With Anthony Benezett, the philan- 
throphic Quaker, I sincerely declare that I 
have found among the negroes as great a 
variety of talent as among a like number of 
whites ; and I am bold to assert that the notion 
entertained by some, that they are inferior in 
their capacities, is a vulgar prejudice, founded 
on the pride or ignorance of their lordly 
masters, who have kept their slaves at such a 
distance as to be unable to form a right judg- 
ment of them. 



88 

While we lay in this old cotton-shed, thirteen 
of the prisoners conceived and executed a plan 
of escape. They succeeded in scaling the walls, 
and wandered about the country for some time ; 
but being unacquainted with the geographical 
features of the locality, were all subsequently 
recaptured, and again brought to the prison. 
For this attempted escape, several were shot, 
and others were loaded with huge chains. In 
the midst of this severe punishment they never 
once repined, but looked forward with ardent 
hope to a period when they might again be 
permitted to defend the ensign of liberty they 
so dearly cherished. Many who had previously 
been "conservative" in their views of the pe- 
culiar institution, now realized a modification 
of their sentiments, while the universal convic- 
tion seemed to be that this system of human 
bondage had been the parent source of all our 
national dissensions. 

Captain Troy seemed to derive special delight 
in practising almost every species of deception 
upon the defenceless prisoners. He frequently 
cheered us with assurances that our imprison- 
ment would soon terminate, and that we would 
be on our way homeward in a short time. All 
these hopes would as quickly give place to 
saddening disappointments, for in none of his 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 89 

declarations was there the least shadow of truth ! 
One day he entered and told us that we had 
been exchanged, and ordered us to immediately 
prepare for our departure. Then we realized 
''how deep a gloom one beam of hope en- 
lightens," and in our fancy, already treading 
the soil of liberty, lost no time in making all 
necessary preparations to quit the land of 
chains and cruelty. Nor had we much to pre- 
pare — a few moments only, and we stood ready 
for our exodus. The minutes dragged lazily 
on that were to introduce us to freedom ; but 
what was our unspeakable vexation and cha- 
grin to learn that we had been the victims of a 
cruel hoax, perpetrated through sheer diabolism. 
One bright and beautiful summer morning, 
however, legitimate orders came for our instan- 
taneous departure, and, as before, we were soon 
ready. At eleven o'clock, we stepped aboard 
the cars, and were soon whirled from this 
Sodomic city to await the gradual develop- 
ments of our destiny unknown. Two hundred 
and fifty miles brought us to the city of Colum- 
bus, Georgia, on the Chattahoochee river. The 
crowd that met us here was composed of 
remarkably coarse material, and as far as we 
could perceive, seemed to be an average of the 
staple human product in that locality. They 
8* 



90 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

saluted us with such epithets as "blue-bellied 
Yankees," " dirty nigger- thieves," &c., exhaust- 
ing the entire slave-pen vocabulary, the reigning 
vernacular. 

I regret that I am compelled to record the 
defection of one of our party, whom we had 
supposed to be in hearty sympathy with us, 
but, who, as the sequel will show, was co- 
operating with the enemy. Our first suspicions 
were aroused by the tender regard shown him 
by the rebel officials and ladies ; but when we 
came to Columbus, his designs and character 
became more and more apparent. Of him we 
shall hereafter speak more at length. 

The city in which we had temporarily halted 
quartered a large force of rebel soldiers, the 
majority of them better clad than any we had 
yet met. The place itself, extending one mile 
and a quarter in the direction of the river, and 
about half a mile toward the interior, and 
numbering a population of nearly nine thou- 
sand, was a beautiful one. I observed a 
number of unfinished buildings, erected most 
probably before the war, but now standing 
exposed and weather-beaten, with no roofs to 
protect them from the sun and rain. The 
people here seemed determined to prolong the 
war to the last, confident of ultimate success. 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 91 



CHAPTER VIT. 

Macon — A Southern Unionist in tlie Rebel Army — Beneath 
a Georgia Sun — Secession Speech — Thoughts of Home — 
Political Prisoners— Horrible Place — OflFer of the Gospel — 
Lieutenant A. P. Collins — Contemplated Escape — Robes 
of Blood ! — Pinning a Federal Soldier to the Ground. 

We were next taken to Macon, Georgia. Tra- 
veling by night in box- cars, we bad little 
opportunity to see tbe country. We were 
much annoyed on this trip by drunk en, profane, 
and sleepy guards. Their cuffs and curses were 
almost too intolerable to be borne. 

On board the train, however, there was one 
companionable and intelligent gentleman. I 
regret that I cannot record his name, for he 
was a worthy man, and a lover of his country. 
He related to me many strange inconsistencies 
of rebeldom. Said he : 

" I am here in the army. I was a Douglas 
Democrat, and opposed this war until my life 
was threatened. My only alternative was to 
become a soldier. You may think your case 
a hard one, sir, but I would readily exchange 
with you, for then I should not be compelled to 



92 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

fire upon any wlio rallied beneath the stars and 
stripes. I was in the Mexican war, and there 
followed the dear old flag until it floated 
proudly over the metropolis of the enemy." 

He also informed me that he had a family 
dependent upon him for a livelihood, and com- 
plained of a government that paid eleven dol- 
lars a month to soldiers, and allowed fifty dollars 
per barrel to be exacted for flour, and all other 
necessaries in proportion. Pointing to his 
coarse shoes, he said : 

"These cost me eleven dollars; this flimsy 
clothing I wear cost ten dollars a yard ! Once 
times were good and we were content and 
happy ; but now my family is suffering, and I 
know not my own fate. I know not whether 
you are a Christian or not ; but, sir, my hope is 
in the Lord. He knows my heart ; and although 
I am compelled to do what I believe to be 
wrong, I feel that God will forgive me for my 
family's sake." 

He was a member of the Methodist Church 
South, an uneducated man, but honest and hum- 
ble. He remarked that, if our conversation 
were overheard, we would both be in danger of 
immediate death. 

The morning light appeared at last, and we 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 93 

were passing through a level, boggy country, 
very thioly inhabited. 

Soon after dawn, the long, shrill scream of 
the locomotive announced that we were ap- 
proaching a place of some note. In a few min- 
utes we were in Macon depot ; but of our des- 
tiny or doom we knew nothing. At this time 
there were about six hundred of us. Not un- 
til ten o'clock were we permitted to move, 
hungry and hampered as we were. Then we 
were taken from the cars, and for the first time 
set our feet on the traitor-cursed soil of Bibb 
county, Georgia. In a short time we were 
driven, like a herd of mules^ to the fair-ground, 
an area of three acres, surrounded by a picket- 
fence. Within were several large, rough, 
wooden buildings thrown together for the pur- 
pose of holding Yankee prisoners. 

It was now the 29th of May, and the noon- 
day heat was intense. They kept us sweltering 
in the broiling sun for more than two hours, 
and our sufferings were excessive. Suddenly 
the attention of the crowd was attracted by a 
pompous-looking individual, who mounted a 
stump in the enclosure, and began, with violent 
gesticulations, to harangue the prisoners. 

The substance of this speech is herewith ap- 
pended, though I confess my inability to trans- 



94 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

mit it in the patois in whicli it was spoken. It 
is reported to serve as a specimen of the aver- 
age of Southern logic and oratory, snch as 
often harried onr unwilling ears : 

" Prisoners, you have been committed to my 
charge, and you know that you are invaders of 
our soil. You have been stealing our property, 
and running them off to Canada and other 
places. And when we appealed to you to de- 
liver up our slaves, you passed liberty bills 
in your States, nullifying a law that had been 
passed by the legislature, declaring that you 
would not regard the Fugitive Slave Law. We, 
in assuming the position we now do, are acting 
as a safeguard to our slaves, and protecting 
them as our property — property to which we 
have the right guaranteed to us by God himself, 
when he said, 'Servants, be obedient unto 
your masters.' But you of the North have 
violated the Word of God, and the Constitution 
of the once United States. When we asked to 
secede from you, giving you all your rights, 
and demanding only our own, your government 
waged an unholy war against us — have carried 
it into our country with all its carnage, destruc- 
tion, and bloodshed. The God of battles is 
turning all things in our favor, and we are 
driving your army from our soil — taking your 



A YANKEE PKISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 95 

men prisoners, which is your own sad expe- 
rience. Now, prisoners, you are in my charge, 
and I am sure you cannot expect me to treat 
you only as invaders of our soil, and murderers 
of our countrymen. Notwithstanding all this, 
I shall try to do the best for you, as poor un- 
fortunate prisoners, that the conscience of a 
brave and gallant officer would allow him. 
While you obey my orders strictly, you shall 
not suffer. But if you disobey them, you must 
expect to take the consequences." 

After this address, embodying so much pro- 
fundity and wisdom, we were surrounded by a 
heavy guard, and taken within the guard-lines 
located on the grounds referred to. 

What a dreary spot for our abode, to be en- 
dured we knew not how long ! A gloomy, dis- 
mal pen was to be our habitation. The only 
shade afforded us was that of a few straggling 
pine-trees, beneath which we sat at times, 
brooding over our forlorn and desolate situa- 
tion. Oh ! how wearily passed the days I how 
sadly the nights ! How much did our thoughts 
revert to the " loved ones at home," and how 
in imagination did we realize the loneliness of 
' their sorrowing hearts ! 

Mr. Eogers — before spoken of — came and 
informed me that a group of men standing at a 



96 BEYOND THE LINES; OK 

little distance were from Tennessee and Missis- 
sippi, with several of whom he was well ac- 
quainted, and asked me to accompany him to 
where they were. I did so, and learned that 
there were seven hundred from those States in 
prison, many of whom had been- incarcerated 
ten or twelve months without sluj change of 
clothing, or any comfort to relieve the gloom 
and monotony of prison life. Among them 
were lawyers, doctors, and clergymen — persons 
who had been accustomed to the luxuries of 
refined society, and the endearments of home. 
A volume might be written, recording the 
reflections, sufferings, and experiences of each 
of these brothers, shut up there in a loathsome 
prison for faithful adhesion to their loyalty. 
During that night I slept but little, and said 
less. My mind was busy in contemplation. 

Mr. Rogers conducted me the next night to 
a long board shanty, which was used as a hos- 
pital for the sick and wounded. When I en- 
tered, m}^ heart sickened at the awful sight pre- 
sented. There were confined within that rough 
wooden enclosure about one hundred sick and 
dying, with nothing upon which to rest their 
aching heads. We began the work of contri- 
buting as much as possible to their comfort, and 
of alleviating their sufferings. Most of them 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 97 

were victims of typhoid fever. We had no 
light to guide us, and the only way we could 
distinguish the dead from the living was by 
touch. From time to time was it our painful 
duty to carry the dead bodies of these, our 
fellow-prisoners, and lay them upon the grass, 
where they would often be suffered to remain 
two or three days, when, being tumbled into 
rough boxes, they were put upon a dray, and 
taken we knew not whither. This night was 
one of gloom, loneliness, and desolation. Our 
bed was the hard floor, and sleep was too " coy 
a dame" to be won to conditions so comfortless 
and lorn. I lay longing for the morning which 
came at last ; and never did I greet the light of 
day more joyously than the 30th of May, 1862. 
This was my first night in Macon, Georgia, 
among the sick, dead, and dying. The place or 
pen thus used for a hospital, and the ground 
enclosing it, were of such limited dimensions, that 
the large number of men found it impossible to 
be other than exceedingly uncomfortable, and 
their clothes became infested with bugs and 
vermin. 

The night of the 30th passed wearily away, 
and ushered in the Sabbath — " soft halcyon on 
life's turbid waters." The other ministers sought 
9 



98 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

to hold a meeting, and I went to the command- 
ant to obtain his consent, which he granted. 
With a light heart, I returned to my brother 
ministers to report my success. A moment 
after, a note was handed us, stating that no 
religious services, public or private, would be 
permitted. After the lapse of a brief period, 
they concluded to send their own chaplain 
to preach to ns. But we declined to hear him ; 
and I was appointed to give our reasons there- 
for, which I did as pertinently as possible. 
They then threatened to force us to become 
listeners to sentiments which were utterly in- 
compatible with our views of patriotism and 
Christianity. But they parleyed, and finally 
desisted from their threats. 

It was here that I first became acquainted 
with Lieutenant A. P. Collins, a gentleman of 
refinement and culture, and with whom I was 
destined afterward to share incredible sufferings 
and perils. He was a religious man, and a 
graduate of the Ohio Wesley an University at 
Delaware, Ohio. He had in his possession a 
portion of the Old and Kew Testament, and 
with this volume it was our wont every day to 
repair to the shade of the pine-trees for medita- 
tion, reading, and prayer. The idea of escaping 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 99 

from bur horrible imprisonment, whicli was 
every day growing more and more severe, 
seemed to enter both our minds at about the 
same time, and we agreed to make it a subject 
of special prayer. We shrank at the thought 
of abandoning our comrades in distress; but 
the hope of life, and the possibility of again 
striking a blow for justice and right, stimulated 
us while contemplating such a daring and dan- 
gerous project. We looked upon the height 
of the picket-fence that environed us, the vigi- 
lant guard of four hundred men that watched 
our every movement, and the battery of artil- 
lery planted within the enclosure, and our 
hearts oftentimes sank within us. But our 
friends were dying around us, and day by day 
we saw them deposited in rude boxes, hurried 
for ever from our sight. Once we relinquished 
our hope of personal deliverance, and deter- 
mined to remain with our brethren, and, if 
necessary, die with them. Many who perished 
there were noble men, though they passed away 
"unwept, unhonored, and unsung." We now 
concluded to continue our prayer-meetings in 
the hospital. In this work we seconded the 
efforts of the Eev. Mr. Eogers, Dr. Doke, of 
East Tennessee, and Dr. Fisk, of Illinois. We 



100 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

had not acquainted these gentlemen with our 
plans. Their names should never die, for 

"Midst fawning priests and courtiers foul, 
The losel swarm of crown and cowl, 
White-robed walked these noble men, 
Stainless as Uriel in the sun." 

Their deeds of mercy were too many for 
record here. No circumstances too repulsive, 
no night too dark, no duty too onerous, but 
they were ready for every good word and work. 
Where suffering and pain were, there were they 
present to alleviate and sympathize, and many 
a poor fellow, now gone to his long home, 
blessed them for prayers and consolations in 
the night of death. 

These noble philanthropists determined to 
ask for something to mitigate the sufterings of 
the prisoners, and accordingly made an appeal 
through a humane surgeon for some bedding 
on which the dying men might rest. . This man 
caiTied the message to the commandant. Major 
Eylander, but that dignitary utterly refused to 
listen to the appeal. The surgeon then endea- 
vored to awaken his humanity and Christian 
feeling; but he replied to all this, by saying 
very emphatically : 

''Sir, I have laid off my robe of righteous- 
ness, and put on one of blood, and the best way 



A YANKEE PRISONEK LOOSE IN DIXIE. 101 

. to get rid of these d d Yankees is to let 

them lay there and rot." 

■ Such was the conduct of this man Kylander. 
"We were compelled still to submit to our 
fate, though we employed every effort in our 
power to alleviate the sufferings of our dying 
friends. One case, in particular, attracted my 
attention. A political prisoner named Foote/ 
. who had formerly been a captain of a steam- 
boat plying on the Florida rivers, being sus- 
pected as a Union man, was arrested and 
thrown into prison. He was occasionally visited 
by his wife, and so careful were the rebels, not- 
withstanding their boasted superiority, that two 
guards with loaded guns were invariably de- 
tailed to dog the footsteps of this woman. A 
system of perfect espionage was constantly 
maintained, and so suspicious were the rebels 
of each other, that they would not permit a 
single guard, in any case, to accompany a 
prisoner. An instance of the most barbarous 
torture it was ever my lot to behold, I witnessed 
while here. It was inflicted upon a young man 
from Illinois, for some offence unknown to me. 
He was taken and stretched upon the ground, 
face downward, his legs and arms drawn as far 
apart as possible, and then pinned to the ground 
by driving stakes across them ; and in this state 
9* 



102 BEYOND THE LII^ES ; OB 

of terrible torture was he left for twenty -four 
hours. 

Acts like these filled our hearts with the 
most gloomy forebodings, and we began to 
seriously deliberate the propriety of consum- 
mating our previously contemplated escape. 
We were about three hundred and fifty miles 
from the nearest point where the stars and 
stripes could be reached by water, and two 
hundred and eighty miles by land. The dis- 
tance seemed to be insurmountable, to say 
nothing of the impossibility of surviving the 
hot weather. But the hope of liberty gave 
zest to the project, and we determined at once 
and for ever to abandon the scene of so much 
horror and misery. 



tfi 



A YANKEE PHISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 103 



CHAPTEE YIII. 

Preparing tlie Way — Dave — Pepper, Matches, and Fish- 
hooks — Exchange of Clothing — Passing the Guard-lines 
— Frightened Horse — Halted — Passed — In the Woods — 
Hidden in the Swamp— Pursued — A Night Journey in 
the Cane-brake — Manna. 

We resolved to select a dark and rainy night 
to put into execution our long cherished plan, 
and we waited anxiously for such a night. The 
morning of the 1st of June, which was the 
anniversary of my twenty-ninth birth-day, 
brought with it deep and long forgotten memo- 
ries of other days. 

The next day I was attracted by the move- 
ments of the old negro Dave, who was em- 
ployed in the menial services of the prison. He 
was evidently well acquainted with our position, 
and knew all about the state of affairs. As he 
passed near me, he gave me a significant grin, 
hung his head in assumed difSdence, and began 
shoveling among the rubbish with all his might, 
saying to me as he labored, just loud enough 
for my ear, but looking all the while at his 
work : 

" You Yankees nas jis made about a tousand 



104 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

of the drefful rebels bite the dust up in TeuDes- 
see. I golly, I'se glad !" 

" Why, Dave, aren't you a rebel, yourself?" 

'' No, sail, massa, I'se — " 

Just here, a straggling rebel official sauntered 
in sight, and our conversation was interrupted. 
If any Federal prisoners were discovered hold- 
ing private consultations with the slaves, there 
was a death penalty just so adjusted in the mar- 
tial laws of the Confederacy, as to meet the 
case. I let the day pass without further effort 
to see Dave. 

The next day, however, finding a favorable 
opportunity, I asked Dave if he could furnish 
me three fish-hooks. 

" God bless you, massa, yes !" — his eyes snap- 
ping fire as he responded. 

''Can you get me a tin full of salt, and a 
paper of pepper ?" 

''Yes, massa !" 

" Can you get me a box of matches ?" 

" Yes, massa ; but how's I gwine to get 'em 
past the guards ?" 

" Try, Dave, won't you ?" 

" Bless your soul, massa, yes !" 

I gave him the money, and when his chores 
were done, he passed out, apparently one of the 
most stupid darkies I ever saw. Fortunately 



A YANKEE PKISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 105 

our conversation was not overheard, and I soon 
was in possession of the desired articles. 

During the day, I visited a Tennesseean — a 
political prisoner — and proposed to exchange 
clothes with him, to which he at once assented, 
suspecting my object. He promised to be true, 
and reveal nothing. "We agreed upon an hour 
when he should visit my quarters, at which 
time we were to exchange our clothing. I then 
informed Collins what I had done, and he made 
a similar arrangement with another Tennesseean. 

Time passed wearily on, and brought the 
night of the 18th of June,* which was dark and 
rainy, and promised fairly for our proposed ad- 
venture. In due time our United States uniform 
was exchanged, and we were clad in rebel rags. 
Our hearts beat high with hope, and we were 
resolved to escape or perish in the attempt. 

About half past eight o'clock, we slowly 

* A coincidence here is worthy of notice. On the 18th 
of June, seven United States soldiers were hung by the 
rebels at Atlanta, Georgia. They were apart of the cele- 
brated Chattanooga Railroad scouts, sent out on a military 
excursion by General Mitchell, but who were captured and 
treated as spies. One of the survivors of the part^? , 
Lieut. Wm. PiTTENGER, givos a full and graphic account of 
their captivity and imprisonment in a book which every 
reader of this work should peruse. 



106 BEYOND Tllfc lines; OR 

crawled out of the prison — Collins a little in the 
rear. 

This, with the exception of crossing the 
guard-lines, we apprehended would be the most 
dangerous part of our undertaking, and our 
movements were consequently slow and cau- 
tious. We continued to advance, keeping 
within whispering distance of each other, until 
we reached a little clump of pines near the 
fence, which point we had previously selected 
as a rendezvous. Here we paused to make fur- 
ther arrangements. We felt certain, now, that 
if we were discovered, we would be shot. Life 
for us was only in pressing warily forward. 
After a minute's consultation, in the lowest 
whispers, it was agreed that I should take the 
advance, and that should I be discovered, and 
shot, he should return to his quarters ; but if I 
succeeded in passing the guard-lines, and reach- 
ing our second rendezvous — a thicket of fallen 
bushes between the guard-lines and picket- 
fence — I was then to announce my success by a 
single clap (>f the hands, which would be a sig- 
nal for him to follow. 

I accordingly lay down on my face, and crept 
quietly outward through the lines. The intense 
darkness prevented my seeing a guard, who 
chanced to be stationed close to my path. I 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 107 

came within six feet of him, and could distin- 
guish that he was reposing carelessly against a 
tree,, playing with the rammer of his gun, the 
noise of which served to keep me from running 
against him. It was the most thrilling moment 
of my life ! But I soon got beyond the sound 
of the clicking ramrod of an enemy whose busi- 
ness it was to shoot just such adventurers as 
myself, and I began to breathe a little more 
freely as I neared our second rendezvous. In a 
few minutes I was safe outside the lines, and 
snugly hidden beneath the dark foliage of the 
tangled bushes. Just as I was about giving the 
signal to Collins, I discovered that I had fright- 
ened an artillery horse so much, that he broke 
loose from his hitching-rack, and in another 
moment it seemed as if all rebeldom were oat 
in pursuit of him. Now I should be discover- 
ed ! To run or lie still would be death. An 
unseen Deliverer gave me presence of mind. I 
resolved to turn rebel for the time being, and 
assist in catching the horse. My life depended 
on the action of that moment. I ordered all 
the rebels astir, assuming as best I could tlie 
\ arrogant Southern tone of authority, to assist 
me in securing the animal, and had the gratifi- 
cation of seeing him caught and led away, won- 
dering whether that would be the last of the 



108 BEYOND THE LINE^-; OR 

^'catching" to bo done that night! Again I 
started for our place of rendezvous ; but being 
somewhat excited, and the darkness and rain of 
the night adding to my bewilderment, I ran 
against an artillery guard, who instantly ex- 
claimed : 

" Halt, dar !" 

My unseen Protector again aided me, and I 
once more assumed the rebel tone and manner. 
I replied, with as much offended dignity as my 
beating heart would allow : 

^'Halt, whar?" 

" Who are you, sah ?" 

^' Have you been here so long, sir, and don't 
know me yet ? What's this mean, sir ? Don't 
you understand your business, sir ?" 

" O, yes, sah, I know you, now ; you 'long 
to that thar battallin over thar. Go on, sah !" 

Soon after this, I succeeded in reaching our 
appointed place of meeting, but believing that 
the confusion of the guards in capturing the 
frightened horse had prevented Collins from 
attempting to follow, I went down to the fence 
alone. Five minutes later, I heard my comrade 
giving the signal at the outer rendezvous, to 
which I instantly responded, and in a very few 
minutes we were both outside the picket-fence, 
on the dismal banks of the Ocmulgee river. 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 109 

"We traveled fifteen miles before sunrise, and, 
just at daylight, crossed the river on a railroad 
bridge, leaving it between us and our enemies. 
It was a glorious summer morning. The birds, 
all beautiful and free, were chirping their matin 
praises. The fields and forests were fragrant 
with the blessed baptism of dews, and glittered 
in rare brilliance before the rising sun. All 
nature was clad in robes of royalty, and voiced 
to sweet anthems of rejoicing. But we were 
weary wanderers, homeless and hated, fallen 
among thieves and robbers in the midst of our 
'.native land. As the daylight grew stronger, 
' we resolved to secrete ourselves in the thicket 
among the croaking frogs, and lie low in the 
'dense undergrowth among the reptiles of the 
'cane-brake. We were destitute of provisions. 
jln our haversacks were the matches, salt, pepper 
^and fish-hooks. We kindled a small fire, and 
burnt our papers. We did this regretfully, for 
we had some valuable notes and memoranda 
among them, but we chose to suffer their posi- 
tive loss, rather than risk the danger of a re- 
icapture with them still in our possession. It 
was a sad sacrifice, in a solitary sanctuary, on a 
Istrange altar. Yet our safety demanded it, and 
t was done. 
Our situation was now both desolate and 
10 



110 BEYOND TUn LINES; OR 

dangerous. "We were in tlie midst of a vast 
cane-brake, the extent and surroundings of 
whicli were altogether unknown to us. The 
tall, straight cane-growths, like steady fingers, 
pointed upward to a land of liberty on high, 
and we knew a Present Guide thither, but we 
were without chart or compass in this lower 
wilderness. 

About three o'clock in the afternoon, we 
ventured to the road, keeping a vigilant look- 
out in every direction, dreading the sight of 
white men, and ardently hoping to see the face 
of some lowly slave, in order to arrange with 
our everffaithful friends and now brothers in 
common peril and oppression, for something to 
eat. For a long time we lay silent and watch- 
ful beneath the broad leaves of the swamp 
palm, ch)se by the road-side; but instead of 
discovering a sympathizing negro to whom we 
might appeal for food and friendship, what was 
our bitter disappointment at discovering six 
armed men on horseback, in pursuit of us! 
They were making diligent search. We could 
see them dismount and examine all probable 
lurking-places to the right and left of the road 
as they passed along. As they came nearer, we 
heard their savage curses, and the threatened 
tortures that awaited us if re-captured. They 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. Ill 

circled the thicket, and penetrated at every 
possible angle all about us ; but we were so 
completely concealed that nothing but personal 
contact would reveal our hiding-place. At one 
time, our pursuers were within a few feet of us. 
They must have known we were in that brake, 
for they lingered within hearing until nightfall. 
when they abandoned the search. How thank- 
fully beat our hearts as the sound of their 
horses' hoofs died away in the rearward dis- 
tance ! 

There was an advantage to us in what we at 
first so dreaded — the proximity of these men. 
We were thereby enabled to overhear their 
plans of pursuit. They agreed to set watches 
at certain points on the road, the river, and 
railroad leading to Darien. We were quite con- 
fident we had been betrayed by some cowardly 
prisoner, and suspected that fellow named Clin- 
ton, from Mississippi. 

We learned from our pursuers themselves, as 
they were searching for us, that this traitor of 
traitors gave the authorities of the prison all 
the information they desired, for he had played 
eaves-dropper more than once, rebel and priso- 
ner as he was ! He had actually mapped our 
proposed route, although our scheme was ar- 
ranged between Collins and myself in whispers. 



112 BEYOND THE LINES ; OR 

But we were silently thankful for the informa- 
tion we received, and when we ascertained the 
plan of pursuit, we fixed our course so as to 
elude their pickets. 

With a thanksgiving and a prayer, we re- 
solved to continue our journey immediately 
with the beginning of the night. The night 
was calm and clear. All the sounds that broke 
the stillness were the hoarse croakings of the 
frogs, and the distant barking of watch- dogs on 
the plantations. Looking up to God for guid- 
ance, he gave us a glimpse of the North Star, 
the fugitive's light of hope. We started in a 
south-east direction, through the cane-brake, 
traveling part of the time through dirty, stagnant 
water two feet deep, and sometimes almost to 
our arms ; but it was a venture for life, and we 
urged our way patiently onward, until we came 
to water so deep that we were obliged to stop, 
and wait for the morning. We hailed the day- 
dawn with delight, hungry and weary as we 
were, for we had not tasted a mouthful of food 
since we left the prison. As soon as the grayish 
light appeared, we discovered that we were on 
the bank of a swail, beyond which, on a little 
elevation of land, was one of the richest black- 
berry fields I ever saw. It was like manna in 
the wilderness. With these delicious berries we 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 113 

appeased our hunger, and were strengthened 
for new hardships. The forenoon was one of 
peculiar beauty to us. "We found our Comfort- 
ing Friend in that sacred retreat, present to 
cheer our souls and feed our bodies. We rested 
a few hours, and talked of the goodness of the 
Lord. Occasionally we would see a strange, 
unknown reptile glide among the dense ground- 
foliage, or hear the song of some strange wild- 
bird. We again started on our way, trying to 
pass the time pleasantly by remarking the new 
varieties of vegetation that everywhere met the 
eye — the wild-flowers, the singular leaves, the 
swamp-mosses, and the thousand beautiful crea- 
tions of an Omnipotent Hand, far in the soli- 



10* 



114 



CHAPTEB IX. 

Seeking the Hills — Retreating to the Swamps — Pursued 
by Bloodhounds — Suffering from Hunger — A Dreary 
Night — An Answered Prayer — Singular Noise — Lost in 
the Cane-brake — A Dismal Journey — A Dream — A Sur- 
prise — Wanderings and Wearyings in the Wilderness — 
A Comforter Present — Hope and Cheer — A Cotton-field 
— A Friend in Need — Negro Music — A Feast in the Night 
— An Intelligent Slave — Advice t) Fugitives. 

About two o'clock, we ventured to leave the 
swamp, and strike out for the low hills, and 
travel through the pines. It was the 20th of 
June, and a long day to us. We had scarcely 
entered the pine forest, when we saw eight men 
with guns, on the lookout for us, some of whom 
we had previously seen on the same errand. 
We instantly retreated to the swamp, yet not 
before we were discovered. The dogs were in- 
stantly put on our track, and in order to break 
the scent, we again sought the swail, and waded 
in water to our knees. We passed through 
the densest portions of the brake, where it 
stood thick and tall, forming, in places, an 
almost impenetrable wall of stalks, which we 
carefully adjusted behind us. After several 
hours of this cautious traveling and covering 



A YANKEE PKISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 115 

our way, we were obliged to lie down among 
the swamp palm-leaves for rest. We could dis- 
tinctly hear the baying of the bloodhounds in 
search .of our track, but we felt pretty well as- 
sured they would not be able to follow it. The 
next morning found us wet and weary, and 
quite chilled by the dampness of our bed. We 
thought to make our way out to the pine hills, 
but had hardly concluded to hazard the attempt, 
when we again heard the hounds nearer than 
before. We then penetrated yet further into 
the tangled cane -thicket, for it had become a 
welcome retreat for us. By patient endurance 
we again baffled our enemies, only, however, to 
find ourselves threatened with starvation. We 
tried to catch fish, but failed. We were even 
" unlucky" in our attempts to take frogs from 
the swail with our hooks. Our forlorn situa- 
tion can better be imagined than described. 
Cold, wet, hungry, weak from exposure, heart- 
sick with disappointments, and, worse than all, 
pursued as criminals by those who should have 
befriended us, we were almost ready to despair, 
and lie down to die in the midst of the dismal 
swamp. I felt that indeed strange changes had 
occurred in my life; for, only a few months 
before, I was a free man, surrounded by the kind- 
est of friends, happy in my cottage home, or in 



116 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

my pastoral walks among the people whom I 
loved. But now I was compelled to flee for 
life, half clad and half starved, to the heart of 
a watery wilderness ! From onr covert of 
shade we watched the sun go down, and felt the 
quiet night coming on. Oh I dreary evening ! 
sunless, hopeless, comfortless, and dark! thy 
memory haunts me still ! But we lost not our 
confidence in God. We knelt in the black 
water, and prayed. And down through the 
still night — down through the deep darkness — 
down through the dense cane-brake — down to 
our prostrate souls afar in the solitude, came the 
Blessed Comforter, and we took courage. We 
thought of the old Jews, compelled to wander 
about in sheep -skins and goat-skins. We 
trusted in Elijah's and Elisha's God, and re- 
membered that Daniel had dwelt safely in the 
den of lions. We were so completely thrown 
upon God's mercy, that our faith was stronger 
than ever. We felt that God was nearer in 
the shadows than in the sunshine — that in 
bowing in the water of the swamp to pray, we 
placed our lips nearer to the Infinite Ear 
than if we worshipped in temples on the moun- 
tain. 

We spent the entire day, the 21st of June, 
in this bog. When night came, we tried again 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 117 

to sleep, but were annoyed by a new enemy — a 
legion strong — the pestiferous musquitoes. Dur- 
ing the night; our attention was attracted by a 
sound like the driving of a stake. We arose 
and cautiously reconnoitered in the direction 
from which the noise proceeded. To our sur- 
prise, we came upon a small corn-field, contain- 
ing about two acres, surrounded by a rude fence 
of pine poles. We trembled at the thought of 
being so near a human habitation ; and after 
pulling a few stalks of the young corn to eat, 
we hastened into the thicket, and traveled on. 
The roots of the corn, cleansed and salted, were 
eaten with a relish. The sound which had 
arrested our attention proved to be that pro- 
duced by an insect of the beetle species, and the 
painful stillness and solitude of the place, served 
to make it more impressive than it would other- 
wise have been. The North Star was our only 
guide ; and shaping our course by its uncertain 
light, we again resumed our journey. We had 
not traveled far, however, until we became 
completely bewildered in the cane-brake. The 
sluggish water spread on every side, the thick 
cane and underbush so mingled and commingled, 
that it was impossible to move in any direction. 
Again we concluded to tarry for the daylight ; 
and breaking a few cane-stalks, and laying them 



118 

on the ground near a mossy log, for a bed, we 
tried to sleep. We were frequently disturbed 
in the nigbt by prowling animals, but none of 
them was so terrible to think of as our human 
pursuers. Judging it best to guard against all 
surprises from man or beast, we agreed to 
sleep and stand sentinel alternately until morn- 
ing. Thus we relieved and rested each other 
that memorable night. 

It was a welcome day-dawn to us. Eor two 
hours I had stood guard over Collins, watching 
the stars mirrored on the smooth waters about 
our feet, and it was a glorious sunrise to us that 
chased the shadows and images away, and 
flooded our gloomy retreat with the light of 
morning. Again we started onward, taking 
the sun for our guide. The water grew gradu- 
ally more and more shallow, and the brush- 
wood thicker. Berries became scarcer, and our 
sufferings from hunger increased with every 
step. We were that day wandering weary, foot- 
sore, and heart-heavy, where in all probability, 
human foot had never trod before : 

**In the dark fens of the dismal swamp, 
The hunted Yankees lay ; 
We saw the fire of the midnight camp, 
And heard at times the horses' tramp 
And the bloodhounds' distant bay. 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 119 

" Where hardly a human foot would pass, 

Or a human heart would dare, 
On the quickening turf of the green morass, 
We crouched in the thick and tangled grass, 

Like wild beasts in their lair." 

On we pressed, amid the wild voices of the 
dark cane forest. Our progress was slow. By- 
and-by, as we came upon a mossy log, we tarried 
and tried to rest onr aching heads. We soon 
fell asleep, being overcome by fatigue. I 
dreamed of my loved ones at home — of watch- 
ful eyes and praying voices in our behalf. I 
saw the old familiar hill-slope before my cot- 
tage door, the orchard, the fields, and, better 
than all, the friends of other days, and myself 
among them — all happy at the old homestead 
in free Ohio. Some hovering angel must have 
come and held the picture before my eyes, for I 
was in raptures of delight ! Suddenly I was 
aroused from my slumbers by the tread of some 
animal, I knew not what. As I stirred, it 
hastened into the dark foliage and was gone. I 
awakened my comrade and told him it was 
morning. He was surprised to think he had 
slept so long, and both of us were greatly re- 
freshed. Again we pfayed an(J pressed onward 
for home and friends, and for a sight of the 
Stars and Stripes. We had decided on keeping 



120 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

steadily on in a south-easterly course until we 
reached some point on the sea- coast then in 
our possession. The sun beamed hotly over 
our heads. We traveled as fast as possible all 
day, hoping that we might find some negro — 
none else in that region were human beings — 
and through the aid of slaves get something to 
eat, for we were actually starving. We cap- 
tured a frog that day, and divided the precious 
morsel between us, with thanksgiving. At 
night we lay down, but hunger and faintness 
prohibited repose. We longed for morning. 
We gazed upward to the twinkling stars, pray- 
ing them to speed faster through the firmament, 
and let the sun arise. At length the blushing 
morn appeared. I hailed it as the dawn of an 
eventful day, for now we must seek and obtain 
food, or perish in the swamp. The idea of fall- 
ing into the hands of our enemies chilled our 
very souls. We thought to die alone, and '' let 
the dead bury the dead" in the wilderness, 
rather than suffer ourselves to be recaptured 
and tortured to death by inches, to gratify the 
jeering, jabbering multitudes. But the day 
was come when something more must be ven- 
tured for life's sake. At last dawn came, and 
again we fell upon our knees and asked for 
wisdom and direction in the hour of need. 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 121 

Eising comforted and strengthened, we changed 
our course, and pressed forward, expecting to 
emerge from the cane-brake and find a planta- 
tion where there were slaves. The undergrowth 
was so dense that we could with difficulty make 
about one mile per hour. The day was fast 
passing away, and so was our strength. At 
about three o'clock in the afternoon, we sat 
down, almost in despair, and held a council, 
when we decided that nothing but the hand of 
the Lord could deliver us. Again we bowed 
ourselves before Him, and rose refreshed both 
in mind and body. Our steps were elastic — our 
hearts gladdened, and we hurried onward, under 
the conscious protection of Grod. 

Suddenly, I heard the barking of a dog not 
far distant. We paused and listened. It was 
not a bloodhound. Collins, being a little deaf 
from the effects of terrific artillery-firing at 
Sliiloh, did not, at first, catch the sound. Now 
we knew that help was near. We quickened 
our pace, and in a few minutes heard the voices 
of some negro men. A few steps further, and 
we came in sight of a cotton-field, which we 
approached by walking in the water of a small 
brook that flowed in 'that direction. With 
great caution, we neared the field, in which there 
11 



182 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

were twenty-five negroes at work ploughing cot- 
ton. Most of the men looked old and toil-worn. 
While we were reconnoitering our ground, I 
observed an old, gray-haired man nearing the 
fence with his furrow, and when he paused a 
moment to scrape his plough, before returning 
across the field, I rapped on a rail, which in- 
stantly drew his attention. When I caught his 
eye, I beheld an intellect and a sympathy lan- 
guaged there which gave me hope. I ap- 
proached the old man with trembling step and 
faltering voice, I know, for there was danger of 
communicating with some excitable and treach- 
erous slave — although such are rare cases — yet 
I ventured to speak to my wondering auditor. I 
approached that cotton-field, half famished as I 
was, with many of my Virginia prejudices 
against the negroes, for I had been taught to 
regard them as unreliable and stupid. But I 
felt that death was in the swamp, and life might 
be in the cotton-field. 

" Well, uncle," said I, " I am traveling 
through your country, and I am very ragged, as 
you see. I don't wish to call on white folks in 
this condition, and I am very hungry. Could 
you get me something to eat ?" 

*' Oh, yes, massa ! God bless you ! all you 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 123 

want ; but go back ! go back !" lie contmued, 
waving his hand, as if to hurry me back to our 
hiding-place ; " go back, massa I thej's after you 
wid de houns and de horses ! Do you see dat 
ole cabin up dar, in dat field ? To-night, just 
at 'leven o'clock, come to dat cabin, magsa, and 
I'll gin you all de supper you want. Now, go 
back ! go back, massa !" 

"Uncle, you won't bring anybody with you, 
will you?" 

'' Why, God bless you, massa ; / knows 
you ! I knows you /" 

" Now, uncle, what do you know about me ?" 

"Why, you's one of dem Yankees dat 
broke away from Macon prison, massa. / 
knows you I God bless you !" 

"' "Well, uncle, don't tell that to anybody, will 
you ?" 

" Tinks / tell anybody, massa, when all I's 
got in dis worl' depends on ye ? No, no, massa ! 
But go back ! go back, till 'leven o'clock ! mine, 
now, massa!" and he started after his plough, 
for by this time the other hands were ap- 
proaching. I went back, and reported the pros- 
pects to my comrade. We concealed ourselves 
in the thick brush to await the appointed hour. 
Just at dusk, the slaves unhitched their mules, 



124: BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

finisTied up tlieir rows, and started for their 
cabins, singing: 

" We'll soon be done wagging with the crosses, 
We'll soon be done wagging with the crosses, 
We'll soon be done wagging with the crosses, 
And wing, and wing, and wing with the angels, 
And den wing with the angels, 
In the New Jerusalem I" 

It was weird, ecc^^ntric music, but really tlie 
most thrilling I had ever heard, as it rose 
through the still evening air in rich, mellow 
accord from the voices of the whole company 
of slaves returning to their humble homes for 
supper and rest. I thought, how little the 
people in the North knew about these crosses I 
and I silently but fervently prayed for the day 
to hasten when all these weary ones might find 
the liberty for which they sang and suffered. 

The hours passed slowly away, but at length 
the appointed hour of eleven o'clock drew nigh. 
We left our retreat, and advanced with the 
utmost caution, until we came within thirty 
3^ards of the cabin, when we lay down in a 
brier-path to watch for whatever movements 
might occur. For a few minutes we were kept 
in suspense, not feeling fully satisfied whether 
friend or foe might advance to meet us. Soon, 
however, the faithful old negro came to the 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 125 

designated trysting-place. He was evidently 
alone. He walked round and round the cabin, 
looking and waiting for us, and on seeing us 
not, seemed greatly disappointed. When we 
had assured ourselves that no one was with 
him, and that he was true, we arose from our 
concealment, and walked to the cabin. He was 
rejoiced to see our confidence in him, and was 
as thankful to give, as we were to receive, the 
rich repast he had prepared for us. Our supper 
consisted of corn-bread, smoked bacon, and 
boiled cauliflowers. He also brought us a 
bottle of sweetened water. What a feast 1 
Never did I partake of food with such a relish. 
We received it as directly from the hand of 
Him who "heareth the young ravens when 
they cry." Being assured by our old friend that 
we were perfectly safe, we tarried after supper 
several hours, conversing on the state of our 
country, and receiving advice as to the manner 
of proceeding on our journey. As the vener- 
able man talked to us, telling us how to escape 
to our homes and friends, sharing his sym- 
pathies and his means with us poor destitute 
wanderers, my old prejudices of caste were 
entirely obliterated. Beneath that dark brow 
was the mind of a man, and within that slave's 
11* 



126 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

bosom beat a brother's heart. I could have 
embraced him as my father. 

" Now, massa," said he, as we were about to 
separate until all true friends shall meet in 
heaven, " now do jis as I tells you, and you'll 
git away. You keep dis pine-ridge straight 
on through massa's plantation for five mile: 
Dis ridge goes clean to de coast. It's 'bout 
three hundred mile to de coast by de Ocmulgee 
riber. The Ocmulgee flows into de Altamaha, 
and Darien is at de mouth of de Altamaha, 
and you'll find lots of de Yankees dar." 

The old man understood the times. His 
knowledge of the war, with all its recent and 
important movements, was thorough and ac- 
curate, although he was careful and somewhat 
reticent, even in his communications to us. In 
order to test his professed knowledge of us, 
and to ascertain all we could relative to our 
pursuers, we plied him with various questions. 

" Well, uncle," said we, " I suppose you know 
we are running from the conscript?" 

" No, sah, I knows you is the Yankees what 
broke out o' jail at Macon, dat's what I knows." 

"You're right, uncle. Now what do you 
know about this war ?" 

" I doesn't know much about it, sah ; only I 
knows dat dcy say, if de Yankees whips, de 



A YANKEE PEISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 127 

darkies all be free, but if dese bar rebels whips, 
den we be slaves." 

" Which do you prefer should gain the day V 

" Why, God bless you, massa ! does you tink 
I's a fool ? Course, I wants you to whip." 

" You say they are hunting us ; how many 
have they after us ?" 

" I doesn't know jis zacly ; but I knows dat 
tree men come to massa day 'fore yesterday for 
to git a bloodhound to hunt Yankees with 
what runned away from Macon prison." 

I confess that the thought of being pursued 
by bloodhounds was horrifying in the extreme ; 
and notwithstanding we had already seen two 
large packs at different times upon our track, 
the possible death by these fierce monsters in 
this wilderness made my blood run cold. 

Our further conversation gave us a full and 
satisfactory knowledge of our route, and was 
delineated by our sable friend, as we had after- 
ward reason to know, with perfect geographical 
accuracy. We asked him that in case we 
should be pursued by the bloodhounds, what 
means we should employ to bewilder them. 
This was no new subject to him. He, in com- 
mon with his fellow-bondmen, had seen too 
many instances in which these brutes had been 
employed in capturing fugitives, not to know 



128 

their nature, as well as tlie plans adopted to 
elude them. He told us when the dogs followed 
us in the cane-brake, in order to prevent them 
from keeping the trail, we should travel as 
much as possible in the water; but if we 
should be closely pursued, to leave the cane- 
brake, and take to the Ocmulgee river. He 
assured us that the dogs were fearful of the 
alligators with which that river abounded, and 
that the slaves were taught that alligators would 
destroy only negroes and dogs. He didn't 
believe it himself, although his master thought 
he did. He added : 

''If dem houns gits close on to you, why you 
jis git a long pole, and hop about twenty feet, 
if you kin. You do dis four or five times, and 
whenever you light, why jis put some pepper in 
de holes what your heels make, and when de 
houns come, dey lose dar scent, and den dey 
goes a snufflin and a snufflin roun', and bymeby 
dey snuffles up dat 'ar pepper into dar nostrils, 
and den dey'U go chee ! chee ! chee ! and dat'll 
be de last dem dogs can do dat day." 

This piece of information, and the manner in 
which it was conveyed, accompanied as it was 
by violent gyrations of the body, and an exact 
imitation of dog-sneezing, was very amusing ; 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 129 

and though surrounded by forbidding circum- 
stances, we indulged in an audible smile. 

From this man we first learned of a complete 
organization among the negroes, for the purpose 
of aiding fugitives in making their escape. It 
was similar to an institution which I had often 
heard of as existing in the Northern States, 
under the name of " Underground Railroad." 
The officers of this Southern Underground 
Railroad, on which we were glad to take pas- 
sage, were the slaves of the different plantations, 
who were thoroughly acquainted with their 
duties, and were very suspicious lest they should 
be imposed upon. When we inquired how 
these men should know us, he told us that he 
would arrange that matter, so that we need 
have no fears, but to submit ourselves to their 
guidance, and all would be well. 

We traveled that night through the planta- 
tion belonging to the master of this black man. 
We reached the woods just a little before the 
dawn of day, and here we lay down until a 
faint light streamed in from ''the windows of 
morning," when we resumed our journey. All 
was lone and silent. The wood through which 
we went, with its alluring depths — the verdant 
moss beneath our eager feet — each blossom- 
laden, fragrant bough — and the bearded grasses 



130 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

that shook in the wind, — all gave me their secret 
sigh. All the sweet land around — the distant 
hill — the distant shore, said, ^'Kedeem me 
from mj chains I" 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 131 



CHAPTEK X. 

Pursued by Horses, Hounds, and Men — Another Night in 
the Cane-brake — An Alligator — A Pleasant Disovery — 
The Pass-word — Slaves at Work — A Negro Supper — 
Important Information — A Panther — A Chase to avoid a 
a Chase— Bloodhounds Again — Fourth-of-July Dinner — 
Dismal Night in the Ruins of a Meeting-house. 

"While thus making our way tttrough the for- 
est, we fancied we heard the sound of pursuers, 
and were once more obliged to take refuge in 
the dismal, but now welcome cane-brake. Just 
where we entered the swamp, the water was 
very shallow, and, consequently, afforded us 
but poor protection from the bloodhounds, 
whose peculiar cries we expected to hear every 
moment. We therefore made our way with 
as much haste as possible far into our miry 
retreat, where the depth of mud and water 
secured us from the scenting of the fearful ani- 
mals and their bloodthirsty masters. 

Presently we came upon a stream of water, 
which, diverging from the river at a point above, 
made a circuit, and fell into the river again at a 
point below us, thus converting the area it em- 
braced into an island. The water looked deep, 



132 BEYOND THE LINES ; OR 

and we did not relish a soaking, after having 
our clothes dried during our stay in the woods. 
But once on the island, our safety was insured 
for there was no ferry-boat, nor even a skiff, in 
that silent, murky swamp, by which our would- 
be captors might cross over. Besides, we had 
seen too many hardships to be frightened by 
trifles, and we therefore plunged boldly in, my 
brave comrade taking the advance, and soon 
reached the island. 

That night, June 24th, we made ourselves a 
bed on the banks of the Ocmulgee, by cutting 
down the canes which grew around us in luxu- 
riance. We also kindled a fire, after screening 
the spot so effectually as to prevent its light 
reaching the eyes of any foe ; and by its cheering 
flames we partially dried our wet and ragged 
clothing. Casting ourselves upon oar rude 
couch, we watched the beautiful stars in the dis- 
tant realm on high, and listened to the mur- 
murs of the crystal stream that was protecting 
us from pursuit, until at last we fell into a deep 
slumber. Just before closing our eyes, we heard, 
at some little distance below us, a noise resem- 
bling that which might be made by a huge log, 
one end of which was caught upon a sand-bank, 
and the other playing loosely in the stream. 
But we were too sleepy to suppose that there 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 133 

was any danger indicated by the odd sound, and 
we paid no attention to it. 

Protected by that God who watched Hagar in 
the wilderness, we slept peacefully until day- 
dawn, when we were suddenly aroused by the 
most terrific noise I had ever beard. It resem- 
bled the sound of a heavy steam- whistle, though 
not quite so loud nor shrill. Eemembering at 
the moment a description by the Rev. Joshua 
Boucher, who had traveled in Georgia, of the 
bellowing of an alligator, I at once concluded 
that this must be one. Stepping from my tent, 
or rather cane-hut, I had ocular demonstration 
of the fact, for there, only a short distance from 
me, lay the hideous reptile in all his ugliness. 
Thinking it about time that one or the other of 
us should change quarters, I threw a chunk 
at him. He took the hint, and crawled away 
into the water, only, however, to return in about 
ten minutes to his old post, where, opening his 
fearful jaws, and keeping them so until they 
were covered with flies, he snapped them to- 
gether with a report that chilled our blood. 
This was Wednesday morning, June 25, and Ave 
intended to remain all day in the swamp, for the 
river was lined with boys and negroes. During 
the afternoon, we espied a skiff on the opposite 
side, and laid several plans to obtain possession 
12 



134 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

of it, but tliey were all frustrated. This proved 
to be a blessing, however, for, while making our 
last attempt, we were seen by an old negro, who 
seemed to recognize us immediately. From this 
lowly slave we learned that the river was 
guarded for miles, to prevent our escape. Our 
pursuers were on the watch for us all the way 
to Hockinsville. This newly-found friend 
pointed out to us our only path of escape, and 
appointed a spot where he would meet us at 
midnight, and bring us some food. We blessed 
the negro, and, following his directions, reached 
the place of refuge, where we anxiously awaited 
his second appearance. But the hour passed on, 
and so did several more, but he came not. He 
had, doubtless, been seized by the patrollers. 

The sun of the 26th found us still pressing 
forward. We had gotten thus far, like the old 
apostles, with " neither scrip nor staves," but 
we felt that God was with us, and his servants, 
the poor, downtrodden slaves, helped us on. 
Whenever we met one of the latter, who re- 
plied to our question, " Can't dis yer day," he 
was a friend, but unable to assist us on account 
of the patrollers. If one answered, '' I know 
you," he was posted, and all was Avell. 

We passed the night in the pine woods, I 
remaining awake, and guarding my friend, Col- 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 185 

lins, who was completely worn out. During 
the next day, vv^e made a good distance, in spite 
of numerous difficulties. By the 28th, our 
rebel clothing was well nigh worn off us, and 
our hunger began to increase terribly. In the 
evening, we came upon some slaves in a field, 
among whom were several females, about 
eighteen or twenty years of age. The latter 
were almost naked, having nothing on them save 
a very short skirt, fastened round the waist, and 
held in its place by straps, which passed over 
the shoulders. All the upper portion of the 
body, and about three-fourths of the nether 
limbs, were thereby exposed. None of their 
complexions were black, while one or two of 
them were nearly white. We agreed with 
these slaves to hide ourselves in a neighboring 
lane until night, when they promised to bring 
us food. Shortly after, one of them brought 
us the unwelcome intelligence that we were in 
danger, and warned us to again take to the 
swamp, which was some half a mile away. 
This we did, and after wandering some time 
along the edge thereof, sat down at last beside 
a clear crystal spring, in which were sporting 
numbers of beautiful fish. We could hear the 
nesjroes sino;inof in the field — which exercise 
was a signal we understood to mean that we 



136 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

sliould lie still until it ceased, when we might 
safely venture out to the lane — until about 
nine o'clock, when all became quiet. By mid- 
night we returned to our designated hiding- 
place, where we were soon joined by a black 
man and one of the girls, a beautiful, modest 
creature we had seen in the corn-field. They 
brought us fat meat, corn-bread, greens, and 
" bonny-clabbsr," which was a welcome sight 
to us. During the conversation we held with 
these negroes, we learned that their master had 
gone to the war, leaving them in the charge of 
an overseer. "We ascertained, also, that '* the 
Yankees" had possession of Darien, on the 
coast, and that, in consequence, the slaves had 
been removed into the interior of Georgia. 
Close by there were three hundred rice-farm 
hands encamped, who were in a starving con- 
dition, having been driven to the interior of 
the State by their masters, in order to prevent 
confiscation, and being unable to make a living 
for themselves. Our humble friends informed 
us that if we continued straight on we would 
reach Darien in two days, provided we exer- 
cised due caution to avoid the patrollers, who, 
since our escape from Macon, had been search- 
ing for us vigilantly. The night was well nigh 
all spent in conversation with these slaves, and 



A YANKEE PRtSONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 137 

we had not got much further on our way, when 
the dawn broke upon us, compelling us to leave 
the road and take to the pines. We were sub- 
sequently obliged to leave even these, and 
plunge once more into the more friendly 
swamps. 

After our slender stock of provisions was 
exhausted, we became exceedingly hungry, and 
the day passed away without our obtaining 
even so much as a frog or fish. We slumbored 
all the night, which was chilly and damp, in 
the cane-brake. A fire which we had kindled, 
we were obliged to extinguish, for fear that its 
light might point out our refuge to some 
enemy. During the stilly hours that followed, 
we were once disturbed by a strange noise, 
which, I subsequently ascertained, in a conver- 
sation with Esv. Dr. Kost, mu^t have been 
made by a panther. 

The next day, being terribly fatigued and 
hungry, we resolved to make an attempt at 
replenishing our commissary department. The 
sun came up bright and very hot, and our 
journey through the swamp-palms was indeed 
a toilsome one ; but these self- same palms se- 
cured us against our pursuers, and we there- 
fore did not complain. 

An effort that we made shortly after to leave 
12- 



138 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

the marsh, discovered to us oar pursuers, and 
we were once more forced back to our muddy 
asylum, where we concealed ourselves beneath 
a muscadine vine until twelve o'clock. While 
so concealed, a strange noise fell upon our ears, 
and presently we saw a black man coming di- 
rectly toward us, blowing a horn to call swine. 
When he was about thirty feet from us, we 
called to him, with the expectation of learning 
from him at what points on the river the guards 
were stationed, and also of obtaining from him 
something to eat. 

Upon being first hailed, he exclaimed, '^ Don't 
know you, sah !" and when, stepping from my 
concealment, I called to him a second time, he 
seemed terrified. The next instant he fled 
madly away from us, we pursuing him despe- 
rately, in order to secure him, and thus save our- 
selves from new pursuers. But, notwithstanding 
the fact that he carried a bushel basket half 
filled with corn upon his back, he distanced us. 
Once he stumbled in a swail, and sent the corn 
and mud all over himself, but he quickly re- 
gained his feet, and was soon after lost to our 
view. 

We were now indeed in peril ; and very 
shortly afterward, the wild bay of the blood- 
sounds rang upon our ears through the murky 







o ^ 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 139 * 

air of the morass. Kcarer, clearer, deadlier 
came the dreadful sounds, and we crouched in 
our retreat, expecting every moment to see the 
ferocious animals bounding upon us. But, 
thank God for his watchful mercy, the brutes, 
misguided by a stratagem which the negroes 
had taught us how to execute, were deceived, 
and we had the infinite delight of seeing them 
dash into the stream, swim to the other side, 
and then, renewing their fierce cries, bound 
away, closely followed by fifteen human blood- 
hounds mounted on fleet horses. The peril 
was not past yet, however, for, finding them- 
selves thrown from the scent, the well-trained 
brutes soon came back to the stream, recrossed 
to the side we were on, and coming to our old 
track, lay down, snuf&ng and panting, not a 
hundred yards from us. Think of that, reader ! 
Peeping through the canes we beheld the glis- 
tening eyes of the hounds, saw their long 
tongues lolling from between their powerful 
jaws, and saw their large, terrible teeth shining 
like pearls. 

Their savage masters stood on the bank of 
the swail cursing us, and threatening what they 
would do if they retook us. Once more the 
God of our fathers stretched forth His arm and 
delivered us, for, hearing them post their men, 



140 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

we struck away from them in a northern direc- 
tion, and shortly had the satisfaction of leaving 
them some fifteen miles in the rear. 

Onward, onward we pushed, until so over- 
come with fatigue that we were fain to stretch 
ourselves upon the sand and sleep. This was 
July 8d. The succeeding day — the Fourth — 
broke upon us bright and beautifully, and we 
sped forward with all the power of our limbs. 
We came at last to a very scanty corn-field, 
which, as we learned from the slaves who 
attended to it, yieldedr only about two and a 
half bushels to the acre. Cotton was the staple 
in that region, a^nd with it were bought all the 
necessaries of life. Poor as was the corn, how- 
ever, we carefully confiscated some roasting- 
ears, on which, with half of a frog, we made 
our Fourth-of-July dinner, thanking our Divine 
Preserver for the gift. The remaining half of 
the frog was carefully reserved, with some corn, 
for a future meal. 

The morrow was cloudy and cool. "We were 
now drawing near to the coast, for, as we went 
along, we espied a turtle belonging to a species 
that lived only in salt water. His shell was ex- 
tremely beautiful, and would, doubtless, have 
been very valuable had we thought about dol- 
lars and cents; but some berries, which we 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 141 

found, were of far greater wortli to us at that 
time. 

Night found us still wandering in the land of 
rattlesnakes, scorpions, and traitors. Next day, 
while hunting a sweet-potato patch for a stray 
root or two, we saw a negro man, to whom we 
did not, however, get a chance to speak. Fear- 
ing that he might not, perhaps, be friendly, we 
once more betook ourselves to the pines, where, 
although we did not know it at the time, we 
were hotly pursued. Soon afterwards, the rain 
fell in torrents, while the thunder rolled in 
heavy peals, and the lightning played sharply 
about us. When evening came, we were 
soaking wet, and chilled through ; and coming 
to an old dilapidated building, that was over- 
grown with Spanish moss, and seemed as though 
it had been uninhabited for many a year, we 
hurried into it. By the aid of the lightning, we 
found that it was nearly filled with half- wild 
goats, which, on our arrival, hastily evacuated 
the premises, leaving us in free and undisputed 
possession. The structure was nothing more 
than an old church, with some rude benches in 
one end, and a ruined chancel at the other. I 
here found some leaves of a Bible, upon which 
I pillowed my head for the night, and slept the 
more sweetly that I did so. Adjoining this 



142 

cliurcli was a graveyard, containing some rough 
tombstones, beneath which slept the dead ones 
of many years, all unconscious of the events 
passing above their heads. 

The following day we left our retreat, and 
continued our flight in the midst of a terrible 
storm. About three o'clock, we discovered a 
sweet-potato patch, but it had been completely 
stripped of every root. That night, unable, on 
account of having got our matches wet, to kindle 
a fire, we slept in a corn-field, pulling the dried 
stalks over us to partially shelter us from the 
descending rain. The next day, we resumed 
our flight, or rather our wading, for every rivu- 
let was swollen to a good-sized creek. In en- 
deavoring to cross a turbid stream upon the 
"giddy footing" of a loose log, we were pre- 
cipitated into twelve feet of water, and were 
obliged to swim to the other shore, grateful 
that we escaped with nothing worse than a 
ducking. 



A YANKEE PRISONEK LOOSE IN DIXIE. 143 



CHAPTEE XI. 

Nearing the Coast — Dangerous Predicament — Suspicious 
Company — A Fugitive Conscript — Clay-eating Officials — 
The Squire — Arrested — Mess No. 44, alias Mr. Meeser — 
Acquitted — Placed under Guard — In Chains Again — A 
Forced March — Before the Court — A Union Speech in 
Dixie — Better Fare — Southern Superstition — A Slave at 
Prayer. 

We were now within thirty-five miles of the 
coast, and here the river took a direct turn east- 
ward, by which we knew that we were on the 
direct road to Darien. Two miles further on, 
we suddenly came upon some houses. Men and 
women were passing almost within hailing dis- 
tance ; but caution forbade us revealing our- 
selves; and so we attempted to regain the 
swampy thicket. On our way thither, we passed 
a field in which were a number of geese ; and 
so strong was the temptation to ascertain 
whether goose was as palatable as frog, that we 
halted, and concealing ourselves, wearily awaited 
the fall of night, intending to make a foray by 
starlight. But by four o'clock a heavy thunder- 
storm came up ; and dreading to be again wet, 
w^e made our way to an old waste-house near by 
where, shortly, much to our surprise, in came 



144 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

two men, one rather old, and the other young. 
They inquired where we were from. Collins, 
whose fictitious name was Compton, told them 
that we lived in Pulaski county, Georgia ; that 
we had been driven by the Yankees from Da- 
rien, and were now on our way home. We 
were in a hurry to get there before the con- 
scripts left for the seat of war, in order that we 
might go with our own boys. 

This they thought was all true ; and when the 
rain ceased, we kept up the deception by walking 
along the road with them. They soon . after 
struck off into a by-road, and when we had gone 
a little further on, and thought ourselves safe, 
we turned our footsteps back towards Darien. 
Just as we turned, we were hailed by a man all 
clothed in rags, whose appearance indicated that 
he might have been hiding in the swamp for 
months. He quickly joined us, and entered 
into conversation. He opposed the war vio- 
lently ; and judging from this that he was merely 
acting a part, I determined to be " secesh." 

'' I don't understand," said he, ^' this tarnal 
war!" 

" "Why ! you're not a Yankee, are you ?" I 
asked. 

" Oh, no !" he replied ; " but I don't under- 
stand it." 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 145 

"Why," resumed I, "don't you know that 
the Yankees are coming down here to free 
our negroes?" 

'^ Darn the tarnal niggers !" was the rejoinder; 
" I ain't gpt any." 

" But they will confiscate our land." 

" Well, I haven't got no land, so they can't 
hurt me. Another thing, they say they're 
fighting for the old flag we all loved." 

Eallying myself, I answered : 

" They're all abolitionists ; and if you and I 
don't fight, these negroes will be freed among 
us." 

" Well, now, gentlemen," said our new com- 
panion, " if you'll hear me a minute, without 
getting mad, I'll tell you all about my case. I'm 
a conscript, and I've got to go soldiering for 
eleven dollars a month. If I'd get a jean like 
that of yours" — pointing to an old cotton coat 
that I wore — " I'd have to pay eleven dollars a 
yard for it. These shoes I've got on cost ten 
dollars ; corn-meal is two dollars and fifty cents 
per bushel, and salt one dollar per pound. Now, 

how in the d 1 can a man soldier under 

them circumstances ?" 

I felt myself completely beaten; but still 
fearing a catch somewhere, I resolved to try the 
fellow again. 
13 



146 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

" Why, you're a regular-built Yankee !" I 
exclaimed; '' and ought to be taken up, and if I 
bad my way, you would be." 

At tbis be cbanged tbe subject, and we told 
bim tbe Pulaski county story. He tben invited 
us to bis bouse to get sometbing to eat, to 
wbicb, of course, we bad to consent. Wbile 
tbere enjoying our meal, wbicb consisted of corn- 
bread and sour milk, and watcbing bim closely 
all tbe time, in marcbed fifteen conscripts. 
Tbey immediately seized tbe master of tbe 
bouse, and put bim under a beavy guard. 
Here was a new dilemma, and I winked at my 
comrade to answer all questions, as I was fear- 
ful tbat if both of us undertook tbe task, some 
fatal mistake migbt occur. He did so, and 
succeeded remarkably well, for be was shrewd 
and quick at perception. I stood carelessly by 
the fire, drying tbe only stpcking I bad, and 
playing the idiot to what I thought perfection. 
Tbe intruders were dressed savagely, their 
heads being covered with rudely-made caps of 
coon-skin, the tail of the animal hano^in^: down 
their backs. Several of them were eating the 
clay which has so often been noticed by travellers 
in tbe South. 

These miserable creatures despatched one of 
their number on a jenny, who shortly after 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 147 

returned, bringing with Lim the ''squire," a 
long, lanky, knock-kneed man, with hollow 
eyes and lantern jaws. He had a law-book 
tucked under his arm, to give weight, I suppose, 
to his appearance. This dignitary (?) stepped 
to me, and began questioning me with much 
official haughtiness, in fact so offensively, that 
I became enraged at last, and throwing off my 
assumed character of an idiot, exclaimed : 

"Who areyouT 

"I'm the sqidali, sir, the squiahT he replied, 
in his half negro dialect, and in exceedingly 
pompous tones. 

" Well," said I, " the people who made a 
squire of you must have been very short of 
material. But, sir squire, what is your business 
here?" 

"To hold a trial over you; that thar's my 
bis'nis here." 

I looked the ignoramus sternly in the face, 
as I rejoined : 

" Well, sir, if you undertake to ' hold a triaV 
over Pulaski county citizens, we'll make you 
smoke for it." 

My determined manner nonplussed him con- 
siderably, and turning to a companion, who 
seemed to be a conscripting officer, he said : 



148 



" I don't want nuthin' to do with these yer 
tarnal fellers, fur they know 'emselves, I golly I" 

The conscripting officer, however, was not so 
easily turned aside, for failing to induce the 
'^squire to hold a trial on us," he sent a message 
to the deputy sheriff, and that high functionary 
came promptly to the rescue of the '' Confede- 
racy," and arrested us. The squire having thus 
shifted this responsibility, regained his courage, 
and said to us, fiercely : 

"Now, then, you're arrested, and you've got 
ter tell us who you are, and whar from." 

" Ah ! we're prisoners now, and you may find 
out all you want to know if you can," was our 
reply. 

We were forthwith searched, the result of 
which was the finding of a slip of paper in one 
of my pockets with ^' Mess No. 44" written on 
it. Not one of our captgrs could read; and 
when I asked for a written copy of the charges 
against us, they were completely dumbfounded. 
The "squire," with a kind of glorification in 
his tones, said : 

"A bill, you tarnal fool! I can't write, I 
golly !" 

My comrade was asked if he could read and 
write, and on his saying yes, the card was 
handed to him to decipher. The crowd clus- 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 149 

tered around, and when he assisted them in 
spelling out the word upon it, one cute fellow 
exclaimed : 

'' Meeser ! Meeser ! that's it !" 

"YeS; that's it," bawled another, who had 
thrown himself on a bed ; '' Mr. Meeser, I golly ! 
John Meeser, what lives up in Pulaski county, 
and keeps a grocery, and sells good whiskey, I 
golly." 

Here was our salvation ; and starting forward, 
I harangued my wondering auditors with all 
the eloquence at my command, appealing, and 
threatening, and reasoning by turns. The 
result was that we were acquitted, the " squire" 
himself announcing it in the following laconic 
style : 

"You're clar, I golly 1" 

The night setting in with a heavy storm of 
rain, again we were all compelled to remain in 
the house together. We, ourselves, pretended 
to sleep, and heard the rebels several times re- 
mark : 

" How sound these men sleep ! None but in- 
nocent men could sleep that way." 

"' Shortly after midnight, we made an attempt 

to escape, but, opening the wrong door, we 

found ourselves in another room, which was 

tenanted by some of the conscripts. In an in- 

13^ 



150 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

stant all were awake, and we were once more 
seized. Several of them accused us of being 
devilish Yankees^ and urged hanging as the 
best course to pursue. Others of them still be- 
lieved us to be what we had represented our- 
selves. This division of opinion resulted in 
the deputy sheriff ordering us to be taken from 
the house under a guard of six men with loaded 
muskets. He followed us out, telling us as we 
walked along, that we must go into close con- 
finement. We could not realize what he meant, 
but we soon learned, for within ten minutes we 
were chained together with a huge chain. One 
end was twined round my neck, and secured 
with a large padlock, while the other end was 
placed in like manner about Collins' neck. 

There, in the midst of ruthless foes, a thou- 
sand miles away from home and its endearments, 
we stood wet, ragged, and forlorn ; chained, jes, 
chained together, like felons, like oxen, like 
wild beasts. Had it not been for the comforting 
spirit of God, I am certain that I should have 
sunk at this juncture with despair ; for in fancy 
I could see my wife and my little ones in their 
peaceful cottage, fondly asking when the absent 
loved one would return. " Ah !" thought I, 
^'when, indeed, shall I be joined to you once 
more, darlings ? Shall it be on this earth, or 




" One end of the chain was twined round my neck, and secured 
with a large padlock, while the other end was placed in like 
marner about Tollins's neck. " — Page 150. 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 151 

shall it be in that better land where man's in- 
humanity to man makes no one mourn ?" 

In the morning, our merciless captors, form- 
ing on either side of us, and also in our rear, 
forced us to march forward. My wounded foot 
and hand pained me very m.uch, and it was with 
the utmost difficulty that I could walk. The 
disparity, also, in the height of my comrade and 
myself — I being much taller than he — caused 
me to give him a severe jerk at every step. So 
fatigued and dispirited did we at last become, 
that we threw ourselves down, and refused to 
go any further. At this our captors threatened 
to shoot us. We were not to be intimidated thus, 
however, and the ruffians were at last obliged 
to obtain a rickety old wagon, in which we were 
carried some distance. After traveling forty- 
five or fifty miles, we arrived at the town of 
Jackson, Georgia, where the people had already 
heard of our approach. On reaching the place, 
we were allowed to seat ourselves on a Captain 
Smith's porch, until a court could be convened 
for our trial. The jury was composed almost 
entirely of old men, and while they were pre- 
paring for their assumed duties, our guards 
were off trying to hunt up some whiskey. But 
as the latter article was worth eight dollars a 
pint, their efforts were not likely to meet with 



152 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

much success. This was fortunate for us, as, if 
they should obtain enough^ of the vile com- 
pound to intoxicate themselves, they would 
most likely kill us on their return. 

The court soon being prepared to proceed, I 
was the first arraigned. We had resolved to 
tell the truth concerning ourselves, no matter 
whether we should die for it or not, and so I 
addressed the court as follows : 

" May it please the court, I was born in Kock- 
bridge county, Virginia, but early in life re- 
moved with my father to Ohio, and settled in 
Shelby county, where he raised his family of 
six sons and three daughters. Of this family, 
I am the youngest member, except one. Early 
in life I commenced a public career, which I 
followed until I heard of the bombardment of 
Fort Sumpter — until I heard that a league of 
men, banded together for the express purpose 
of destroying the best government on God's 
earth, — had dragged our glorious old banner 
down into the dust, and trampled it beneath 
their feet, and finally fired it from a cannon's 
mouth, in order that no vestige of it might re- 
main. Then I remembered that my grandsire 
had fought under that holy banner at Bunker 
Hill ; that he was present on the field, when 
Molly Pitcher, stripping the uniform from the 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 153 

stiffening limbs of her dying husband, assumed 
his command, and drove the enemy back. I 
also remembered that, in 1812, my father, 
leaving at home all his loved ones, took the 
field in defence of the Stars and Stripes. I 
have heard my mother say — Grod bless her ! she 
is now in heaven — that her husband and six 
brothers were in the army at the same time. 
Now, gentlemen, do not think I will waive any 
part of the facts in the case. The son of pious 
parents, I was always taught to speak nothing 
save the truth ; but, on the day we were ar- 
rested by these gentlemen, if I dare call them 
such, I gave my first denial of the positive 
truth. We both endeavored to deceive you. 
And why ? Because we knew that our lives 
were not safe, if you should learn who we really 
were." 

(Here a voice said, "No, by golly, they're 
not safe, now ./") 

" Gentlemen, be that as it may," continued I, 
'' I will speak my last words with courage, and 
they shall be truthful words. When this war 
broke out, I was engaged at my profession in 
Cincinnati, Ohio ; but I felt, and I avowed it at 
Heaven's altar, that I could be nothing else than 
a United States soldier. I accordingly volun- 



154 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

teeredtojoin my loyal couutrymen already in 
the field. 

" On March 4tli, we left Paducali, Kentucky, 
and on the 13th, we landed on Pittsburg Hill. I 
contended with all my heart and might against 
Beauregard's skirmishers for several days; but 
I was finally overpowered by numbers, captured, 
and taken to Corinth. From there I was taken 
to Columbus, Mississippi, from there to Mont- 
gomery, Alabama, and from thence to Macon, 
Georgia. On the night of June 18th, in com- 
pany with my comrade, I broke from the 
guard-house at the latter place, ran your guard- 
lines, and escaped. Since then we have been 
fed and assisted by your negroes, until now we 
are in your power. 

"In conclusion, gentlemen, I would say, 
shoot me, hang me, cut my throat, kill me in 
any way you please. But, know you, that in 
so doing, you kill a United States soldier, who 
glories in these chains !" I shook my chains as 
I finished. 

In an instant there was an uproar, some de- 
manding that our chains should be removed, 
and others swearing that they should not. The 
matter was settled by the sheriff, however, who, 
on receiving our v,^ord that we would give him 
no trouble, freed us from the disgusting bonds. 



5- ^ 

05 P 



c 3 




A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 155 

This change of our fortune was as sudden as 
it was unexpected. "We enjoyed supper with 
Captain Smith, having finished which, we found 
the deputy sheriff' ready, with a team of splendid 
horses, to convey us to his own residence, some 
two miles from town. We were not long in 
ascertaining that the sheriff was a Western 
Virginia man, and that his sympathies were 
with the United States government. He in- 
formed us that Captain Smith was under bonds 
for ten thousand dollars for his good behavior. 
From the Captain we got the story of the men 
who followed us in the sweet- potato patch on 
the same day we came to the old church, of 
which I have before spoken. 

In the course of their pursuit they had 
stopped at the Captain's door, and inquired of 
hira if two men, answering our descriptions, 
had passed that way lately. Thinking at the 
moment of the old church, and v/ishing to test 
their bravery, he informed them that he believed 
they would find us there. He took care to add, 
however, that the building was haunted, and 
that from out of the graves which surrounded 
it, they would see men rising without heads. 
One and another at this exclaimed against 
going on an errand fraught with such danger 



156 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 



from spirits, and we were thereby saved from 
capture, at least at that time. 

After hinting to us the sentiments of Captain 
Smith and himself, the sheriff' invited us to his 
house. It was constructed of rough pine logs, 
but scrupulously clean and neat in all its ar- 
rangements. We also saw his negroes' quarters, 
and they were nearly as good as his own house. 
As we passed along on our way to inspect a 
field of sugar-cane, we were amused to see the 
slaves peeping at us from behind the corners of 
their cabins. 

Our friend next furnished us with water, 
soap, towels, and a razor, and going into the 
sugar-house, we cleaned ourselves. This ex- 
pression may seem rather strong to delicate 
ears, but it is the only term which even faintly 
describes our task. We at once commenced 
hostilities, scraping rebel mud, wood-ticks, and 
body-guards from our skins. The contest 
lasted for over two hours and a half, we prov- 
ing entirely victorious. 

When it was dark, we heard the same old 
song that we had heard before, when the negroes 
were coming from their work. As I sauntered 
down a lane near by, words of prayer fell upon 
my ears, and a little investigation discovered 
to me a female slave down on her knees in her 



A YANKEE PRISONEK LOOSE IN DIXIE. 157 

lowly hut, asking God to bless and preserve 
her husband, who was to be parted from her 
and sold to a new master. What Christian 
meeknesS; resignation, and faith in God's power, 
did this poor creature manifest in her words of 
petition ! and the lines sprang into my mind : 

"Christian men have bought and sold me, 
Paid my price in paltry gold ; 
But, though slave they have enrolled me. 
Minds are never to be sold." 

Her prayer comforted her, and rising from 
her knees, she began to sing ''the song of 
David." 



14 



168 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 



CHAPTEE XII. 

Christian Fellowship — Candid Conversation with a Slave- 
holder — Clay-eaters — A True Unionist — Secret Organi- 
zations in the South — Washington and Randolph on 
Slavery — Aunt Katy — Religion and Republicanism — Pro- 
slavery Inexcusable in the North — A Distinguished 
Abolitionist. 

As the words of inspiration came to my ears, I, 
too, sank on my knees, and poured forth my 
soul at the mercy-seat. I must have spoken 
rather loudly, for the next morning, this identi- 
cal slave woman, while dressing my wounded 
foot, asked me to what church I belonged. On 
my telling her, she sprang away quickly, and 
ran and informed her mistress that I was a 
minister of •their church. The lady immedi- 
ately came to me, her face wreathed in sweet 
smiles, and inquired if such was really the case. 
I told her it was, and had been so since my 
seventeenth year. 

''Oh! sir," she answered, ''my husband is a 
member of that church." 

At this moment breakfast was announced, and 
after the conclusion of the meal, I was requested 
by both the sheriff and his wife, to lead in 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 159 

prayer. The Lord put words into my mouth, 
and we had, indeed, a happy time. My host 
then invited me to take a walk with him, which 
I did, though my foot gave me considerable 
pain. We fell immediately to conversation, in 
the course of which I got a full insight into the 
real condition of affairs in the Southern Con- 
federacy. 

To one of my questions, he answered : 

"Yes, sir, the war is the cause of all our 
misery. You see, for instance, this region of 
country is adapted only to raising cotton, for 
the land is too light for sugar-cane or rice. The 
masses of the people in this particular county 
are employed in cutting timber, which, being 
floated down the Ocmulgee to Darien, is sold 
there, and with the proceeds are obtained the 
necessaries of life, flour, corn-meal, salt, &c." 

"Well," suggested I, "you rich men, at 
least, will not suffer." 

" There, sir, you are much mistaken. We 
shall suffer heavily ; for, though we have farms 
and plantations, yet we have not hands to work 
them. And another thing, perhaps, you are 
not aware of, is, that we have thousands of poor 
men who live here and there, in their pole-huts, 
rearing large families on the little crops of cot- 
ton and so forth, which they raise on some other 



160 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

man's farm, upon which they have squatted. 
la the fall they hunt, and thus supply their 
families with meat and salt ; the skins of the 
animals they take to procure the latter article. 
So they live, half human, half animal, letting 
their progeny loose upon us. Of course, many 
of them must starve now. If they could ob- 
tain salt, however, they might live on gophers, 
which abound in the pine-forests." 

Presently, we came in sight of a wretched 
hut, about which I saw some white children 
playing. My companion led me thither, with 
the remark : 

*'I will show you, sir, a family belonging to 
the class of which I speak." 

Upon reaching the hut, my blood almost 
chilled at the sight of squalid poverty which I 
beheld. There stood a family of ten persons ; 
a father — who on account of his age had escaped 
the conscription — a mother, and eight ragged, 
filthy children. The ages of the latter, I should 
judge, ranged from one year up to sixteen. The 
peculiar color of their complexions struck me 
very forcibly ; it was the same as that of the 
men composing the first court by which I had 
been tried. My host gave us a reason for it, 
that " they laid around so much in the dirt, and 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 161 

ate so much clayT I asked the man himself 
why he and his family ate clay. 

" Cause it's good; I golly !" was the prompt 
reply. 

" Well, how are you getting along ?" 

'' Bad enough;" said he, " fur we hain't had a 
grain o' salt in the house fur more'n four 
months, only as the sheriff here gins it to us." 

'' What do you live on, then ?" I asked. 

" Oh, on gophers and corn-meal, now-a-days. 
But, I golly ! our meal's out, and I don't know 
what we'll do next." 

I got this miserable creature to make me a 
pair of slippers from old boots, for which I paid 
him one dollar and fifty cents, in order that he 
might get some corn-meal, which sold at two 
dollars and fifty cents per bushel. This money 
was part of a sum that the sheriff had kindly 
lent me. Before we took our departure, the 
lady (?) of the hut gave us her opinion, in no 
measured terms, of the rascally Yankees. 

" Ah, sir," said the sheriff) when we were out 
of hearing, '' if I were to speak the real senti- 
ments of my mind, I should be hung before 
twentj'-four hours. I am a Union man, and 
when you get back to Ohio, I want you to tell 
all the friends in our Church that I am so. I 
have twenty-seven negroes, and a thousand 
14- ' 



162 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

acres of land, and I would let the whole of it go, 
could I only see the Union restored to what it 
once was. But this 1 never expect to behold, 
for while slavery exists, the Union cannot be 
preserved. I am in reality an anti-slavery man, 
and these are my reasons therefor : First, it is 
a sin in the sight of God ; secondly, it is an in- 
jury to the slave himself; and thirdly, it is an 
injury to the white race." 

"How so?" asked I. 

" Because land worked by slave labor is not 
worth half so, much as when worked by free 
labor. And, besides, if it were not for slavery, 
society would be much improved, for the rich 
and poor, as things are now, are very ignorant." 

" How do the rich obtain their wealth ?" 
said I. 

" In this way. A man comes here, perhaps, 
with one female slave, and, in a comparatively 
short time, he has quite a number of young 
servants about him. Some of these he sells, 
and with the proceeds purchases a piece of 
timber-land. This he has cleared, sells the 
timber, gets more slaves and another piece of 
land, and so goes on adding to his wealth con- 
tinually. He has no education himself, and, 
three times out of four, gives his children none." 

Mv host further informed me that he himself 



A YANKEE PKISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 163 

had three hundred acres of land in Illinois, and 
that he had intended to send his son to that State 
to be educated, but he supposed he would be un- 
able to do so now. He said he had no doubt 
that this Illinois property would be confiscated. 
" But," added he, warmly, " I do not care if it 
is, provided the Union is restored !" 

The sentiments expressed by this man aston- 
ished me, and I could not forbear asking him 
the reason why he opposed slavery so earnestly, 
and yet held in bondage twenty- seven human 
beings. 

" I never bought nor sold a slave in my life !" 
said he. " You saw that old negress, Kate, this 
morning ; well, she belonged to my wife, as did 
also her two sisters. These other slaves are all 
their children, I would have freed them long 
ago, but they refused to leave me ; and I, on 
the other hand, could not leave them to go 
North, for I would have been obliged to give se- 
curity that they would not become a pest and 
burden to the community, and that I was un- 
able to do. So, you see how the case stands. 
But I am not alone in my sentiments, sir. 
There are thirty-five of us within an area of ten 
miles, who have organized ourselves into a so- 
ciety, and hold regular meetings every two 
weeks, to oppose the conscription. This is con- 



164 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

fidential, for I know I can trust jou." He spoke 
of the notice whicli had been taken by Northern 
journals of the existence of such societies in 
the South; and referred to the disunion associa- 
tions in the North. I informed him that the 
latter, thank God; were few and far between, 
and could do no harm to the cause. 

This gentleman's statement concerning the 
depreciation of Southern land, brought to my 
mind the authority of the fathers of our Ee- 
public on the subject. John Sinclair had 
written to Washington concerning the differ- 
ence of the land in Pennsylvania from that of 
Yirginia and Maryland. Washington's answer 
was this : 

" Because there are in Pennsylvania laws for 
the gradual abolition of slavery, which neither 
Maryland nor Yirginia has at present; but 
there is nothing more certain than that they 
must have, and at a period not remote." 

The sheriff''s statement regarding the libera- 
tion of his slaves, was the same as that of John 
Kandolph, Governor of Yirginia. The latter 
said: 

"The deplorable error of our ancestors in 
copying a civil institution from savage Africa, 
has affixed to their posterity a depressing 
burden, which nothing but the extraordinary 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 165 

benefits confered by our happy climate could 
have enabled us to support. We have been far 
outstripped by States to whom nature has been 
far less bountiful. It is painful to consider 
what might have been, under other circum- 
stances, the amount of general wealth in Yir- 
ginia, or the whole sum of comfortable 
subsistence and happiness possessed by all her 
inhabitants." — Addressed to the Legislature of 
Virginia, 1820. 

In the course of a conversation I had with 
the old slave woman, Kate, I said : 

'' Aunt Katy, if the slaves were to be freed, 
it would not do you much good, for you are 
old, and will soon pass into eternity." 

*' Thank de Lord, sah," she replied, "I am 
ready to go ! But, oh ! I wish I could only see 
my children and grandchildren in hope of 
freedom ! And dar's my husband. You see his 
massa might sell him, and den I don't think I 
could live. Dar's no danger of my massa 
selling me, for he's a good man, and he's let me 
and my children learn to read, and I learned 
my husband." 

" What is the law in Georgia on that point ?" 
I asked. 

'' God bless you, sah ! they'd penitentiary a 
man for learning a slave to read." 



166 BEYOND THE LIINES; OR 

This I had heard before, but never until now 
did I give it credence. Aunt Katy told me she 
was sorry we had not struck that town before 
in our flight, as her son was an operator on the 
Underground Railroad, and would have in- 
sured our escape. 

Evening came, and once more did I lead in 
prayer at family worship. I did so with more 
assurance and faith than the evening before, for 
I now thoroughly knew the sheriffs sentiments. 
Had I not known them, I must confess that my 
faith in his religion would have been greatly 
weakened. Do not tell me of republican or 
mutual rights, or Christianity, when the soul is 
full of tyranny. 

* * Are you republicans ? away ! 
'Tis blasphemy the word to say. 
You talk of freedom ? Out, for shame ! 
Your lips contaminate the name. 
How dare you prate of public good, 
Your hands besmeared with human blood ? 
How dare you lift those hands to Heaven, 
And ask a hope to be forgiven ? 
How dare you breathe the wounded air 
That wafts to Heaven the negro's prayer ? 
How dare you tread the conscious earth 
That gave mankind an equal birth ? 
And, while you thus inflict the rod, 
How dare you say there is a God, 
Who will in justice from the skies, 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 167 

Hear and avenge hi^ creatures' cries ? 

' Slaves to be sold ! ' hark, what a sound I 

You give America a wound, 

A scar, a stigma of disgrace, 

Which you, nor time, can e'er efface ; 

And prove of nations yet unborn 

The curse, the hatred, and the scorn." 

The Horrors of Slavery. 

There are a few weak-kneed politicians in the 
North, who think to curry favor with the South 
at this time, by exclaiming, that "we love 
slavery, and that the negroes were made for 
slaves." Did they but know the opinion of 
Union men in the South, their hopes for popu- 
larity would be for ever blighted. 

After our devotions were ended, conversation 
on the current topics of the day was resumed. 
The sheriff expressed the hope that he would 
soon hear of the arrests of all in the North who 
were opposed to a vigorous prosecution of the 
war. This converse we continued until bed- 
time, when, again joining in a supplication to the 
Throne of Grace, we retired for the night. But 
sleep was a stranger to my eyes, for my foot 
and hand, although Aunt Katy had dressed 
them skilfully, gave me excessive pain. As I 
la}^ writhing on my couch, I was unable to ban- 
ish the thoughts that came flashing into my 
mind concerning the bondmen of the South ; 



168 

and I pondered deeply whether I could not do 
something toward benefitting them. Yet when 
such men as Washington and Jefferson failed, 
how should I succeed ? 

" But," exclaims the tender-footed Union 
man, '' you would not intimate that Washing- 
ton was an abolitionist ?" 

To such an one I would say, *' Hear the 
words of that great and good man." 

'' The benevolence of your heart, my dear 
Marquis, is so conspicuous on all occasions, that I 
never wonder at fresh proofs of it. But your 
late purchase of an estate in the colony of Cay- 
enne, with a view of emancipating the slave, is 
a generous and noble proof of your humanity. 
Would to God a like spirit might diffuse itself 
generally among the minds of the people of 
this country ! But I despair of seeing it. 
Some petitions were presented to the Assembly, 
at its last session, for the abolition of slavery, 
but they scarcely obtained a hearing." — Letter 
to Lafayette. 

Eising early the next morning, I walked 
abroad to view the works of Grod; and as I 
limped along, I thanked him exceedingly for 
his goodness and kindness to me, his unworthy 
servant. As I passed the cabins of the sheriff's 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 169 

slaves, they were preparing to go up to his 
house for prayers. 

After breakfast, our host, taking us aside, 
informed us that as we had been committed to 
his charge, he would be obliged to return us to 
Macon, where he would get the commandant to 
parole us, limiting us at the same time to the 
boundaries of the State. Had he himself come 
across us accidentally, he assured us that, in- 
stead of holding us, he would have had us 
conveyed secretly to our lines. But this, under 
the circumstances, he was now unable to do, 
as he would thereby incur the death-penalty 
himself. We, of course, assented to this, as it 
would have been extremely ungrateful to our 
host, who had protected us from violence, to 
refuse. 



15 



170 BEY0N1> THE LINES; OR 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Classes in the Confederacy — Terror of a Name — Insurrec- 
tion — Suppressing a Religious Meeting — The Safe Ground 
— A Sad Parting — Whj Prisoners' Stories Differ — Effect 
of Church Division— The Darien Road — A Wealthy 
Planter. 

During the day, I walked out into the pines 
that I might be alone with my thoughts ; and 
there in the solitude I mused upon all the 
knowledge that I had gained from my host, 
and also from my previous experience. Oh! 
thought I, if our people at the North were 
permitted to look into the hearts of the better 
class in the South, there they would see nothing 
but opposition to the great sin of slavery. 
Could they but see the South as I have seen it, 
they would come to the same conclusions as 
myself, viz., that there are three distinct classes 
or castes. First, there are the clay -eaters, or 
common mass of the people, upon whom even 
the negroes look down with contempt. Second, 
there is the middle class, in which we find all 
those who sympathize with the North in this 
war. Lastly, we have the slave-owning aris- 
tocracy, haughty, supercilious and powerful. 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 171 

Our host belonged to the middle class, and 
on being questioned why that class held the 
peculiar position it did in regard to the rebellion, 
he replied: 

'' We know that the very moment they — the 
aristocracy — succeed in forming a Confederacy, 
they will, of necessity, keep a large standing- 
army. Into this army they will force the sons 
of the poorest class, or clay-eaters, while they 
themselves, having negroes to do all their labor, 
will have full control of affairs. Then assum- 
ing all the lucrative offices for themselves, they 
will force us in reality to support them. 

"You may ask why we do not educate the 
poor whites, and thus set at work a force that 
would destroy the power of the aristocracy. 
"We would willingly do so, but for the fact that 
they are so stubborn, ignorant, and bigoted, 
that any attempt of such a nature would be 
termed abolition^ and you might, with far more 
safety, call a man a thief or murderer than call 
him an abolitionist. 

"■ Should the Confederacy succeed, too, there 
will be another danger, which will require all 
the power of the government to combat, and 
that is the insurrection of the slaves. The 
latter are, almost to a unit, expecting their 
liberty by reason of this war, and are at present 



172 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

quietly awaiting sucli a result. Should it un- 
fortunately turn out, however, that the rebellion 
succeeds, then they will doubtless strike a blow 
for themselves ; and may Heaven spare me from 
witnessmg the terrible scenes which must follow." 

Showing me his hand, which I noticed had 
been wounded at some former time, the speaker 
added : 

''That wound I received in the following 
manner. It will serve to show what harsh 
measures have already been resorted to for 
preventing any rise of the slaves. I used to 
allow my servants to hold prayer-meetings 
sometimes in the house ; and on one occasion a 
patroller came to the house while one of their 
meetings was in progress, and summarily pro- 
ceeded to break it up. I interfered, when, 
turning upon me, he struck me a fearful blow 
with his weapon, breaking my fingers as you 
see. I instantly shot him. Since then I have 
been obliged not to allow the meetings." 

In my own mind, I could but compare this 
noble gentleman to many half-hearted Christians 
in the North, who would assist in perpetuating 
the curse of slavery on the ground of policy. 
Shame on such false Christians and hypocrites ! 
They would call themselves democrats of the 
nineteenth century. They would say they were 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 173 

on the side of Washington and Adams, and all 
the fathers. But they are not, for Washington 
was not in his heart a slaveholder, as the follow- 
ing extract from a letter written by him is 
suf&cient to prove : 

" I hope," writes he, " it will not be conceived 
from these observations that it is in my heart 
to hold the unhappy people, who are the sub- 
ject of this letter, in slavery. I can only say, 
there is not a man living who wishes more 
sincerely than I do to see a plan adopted for 
the abolition of it." 

Eeader, you may, perhaps, complain or dis- 
approve of my digressions from the subject of 
my own perils and adventures to that of slavery ; 
but, so long as God blesses me with thoughts 
and words, so long will I continue to strike at 
the wicked, man-degrading institution, with 
all my heart, with all my soul, and with all my 
might. Slavery is the baneful Upas that over- 
shadows our glorious Eepublic, and its deadly 
exhalations must in time destroy us, unless we 
cut it down, tear it out by the roots, and com- 
pletely annihilate it now and for ever. I, with 
the great founders of the Eepublic, hold these 
to be self-evident truths : '' That all men are 
created free and equal ; that the}^ are endowed 
b}^ their Creator with certain inalienable rights ; 
15- 



174 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

that among these are life, liberty, and the pur- 
suit of happiness. That, to secure these rights, 
governments are instituted among men, deriv- 
ing their powers from the just consent of the 
governed," &c. 

But to return to my theme. When, after 
passing through innumerable hardships and 
perils, being imprisoned in Columbus, Mobile, 
Montgomery, and Macon, and spending twenty- 
one weary days in the dismal swamps and pine- 
woods of Georgia, I reached the home of the 
sheriff, I, like Paul the apostle, thanked God 
and took courage. 

As soon as practicable we set out for Macon, 
and while memory holds a place in my being, I 
can never forget the parting of ourselves and the 
kind family by whom we had been so befriended. 

*' Good-bye, gentlemen," said the lady of the 
house, her eyes suffused with tears ; " and should 
we never meet again on earth, we shall, perhaps, 
in that better land, where all is love and peace." 

There was such a sincerity in the fair speak- 
er's tones, that I could not repress the tears 
that her words brought to my eyes. The ser- 
vants, too, clustered around us, and in their in- 
telligent countenances I could discern that they 
appreciated all that was going on. A final 
shaking of hands, an adieu, and we were off. 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 175 

Our buggy bore us quickly out of sight of the 
bouse, and I must acknowledge, prisoner as I 
was, that there was a pang in my heart at the 
moment. And here a thought suggests itself. 
The reader has, doubtless, often thought, after 
reading the various and conflicting accounts of 
returned prisoners, how strange it was that they 
could so differ. Now, their treatment depended 
entirely upon their own conduct, and the class 
of people among whom the chances of war 
threw them. It was very rarely that any one 
expressing his opinions against the Southern 
system as boldly as I did, met, upon the whole, 
with such good fortune. Those who fared well 
were semi- secessionists. I will give a case in 
point : 

At Columbus, Mississippi, there was a man 
from Illinois, who stated that he was a quarter- 
master in a cavalry regiment. He was an ar- 
dent pro- slavery man, and whenever the sub- 
ject came up, he defended the right of the- 
South to hold slaves, and became enraged if 
that right was assailed by any of his compan- 
ions. This man took the trip with us through 
Mobile, Montgomery, and Macon, and was con- 
tinually receiving favors that were denied to 
the rest. While in Macon, he was appointed 
prison quarter-master ; was permitted to run at 



176 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

large, and he used the privilege to post the se- 
cessionists in everything that was favorable to 
them. This man will be referred to again ere I 
close this narrative. 

We were to go by land to Hockinsville, 
where we were to take the cars. We traveled 
slowly, in order, as the sheriff remarked, that 
we might really see the destitute condition of 
the country through which we passed. We stop- 
ped at a place where a deer had just been killed, 
and obtained some fresh venison. The man 
from whom we got the meat, was from Eastern 
Maryland, and, while conversing with him, I 
found that he had some knowledge of the dis- 
union men of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
He was deeply opposed to the separation, but 
at the same time, candidly admitted that the 
North had sufiicient cause therefor. Still he 
thought that it would have been far better to 
remain united, and endeavor to reform the pro- 
slavery portion. 

" I and this gentleman," said he, turning to 
the sheriff, " have stood up for our faith com- 
paratively alone, until the outbreak of the war. 
Since that, we have been joined by several 
more, but we are crushed, and dare not speak 
what we think. If we did, we should be hung 
to the first tree that could hold us." 



A YANKEE PKISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 177 

He persistently contended that it was a very 
unfortunate thing that the Church had divided, 
urging that it led to a division of the govern- 
ment. I held not much further argument with 
him on this subject^ as anti-slavery men of his 
class were very unpopular in Ohio when I left 
there. 

At evening we seated ourselves on the porch 
of this man's cottage, and began conversing 
with the family, the subject being changed of 
course. 

The majority of the residents in this county 
held the same opinions as these two. I would 
like to give the names of these gentlemen, but 
as they might possibly get into some of those 
traitorous Northern papers which circulate in 
the South, and thereby bring them into trouble, 
I am constrained to suppress them. 

We remained at this house all night, and 
bidding our new friends farewell, started the 
next morning on our way. We kept the Darien 
road, which I could recognize by the descrip- 
tions given of it by the negroes. Our next 
stopping-place was far from agreeable, for every 
one in it y/as a strong secessionist — so strong 
indeed, that, when they found out our characters, 
They did not object to the sheriff having any- 
thing he wanted, bat not with us. The keeper 



178 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

they utterly refused to give us anything to eat. 
of the house at which we were, cursed fearfully, 

swearing that the d d Yankees shouldn't 

have a morsel of food. The sheriff*, however, 
pacified him at last by telling him that I was 
from Virginia, and that, although I was in the 
Yankee arm}^, still I was as pro-slavery a man 
as himself. This made matters a little better, 
and the surly host proceeded to question me. I 
baffled him, however, by saying : 

'^ What paper do you take?" 

" "We don't take none," said he, '^ fur I can't 
read. Have you ever been in a fight?" he 
quickly added to his reply. I answered in the 
affirmative. 

*' Have you ever seed a gunboat?" 

'' Yes," I rejoined. 

He then became much interested, and was 
not satisfied until I had given him a long 
description of a gunboat, its object, and its 
powers. 

At this juncture five villanous-looking men 
entered the room, and calling to my listener, 
took him outside. When the sheriff saw this, 
he turned rather pale, fearing that some violence 
was threatened. When he was about to leave 
with us, he asked the landlord what his bill 
was. 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 17-^ 



"Oh, nothing! as you're taking them d- 
Yankees to justice," was the reply. 



Though by no means complimentary, this 
expression took a heavy load off our minds, 
and we were comparatively light-hearted when 
we took our departure. 

The sheriff resolved not to halt again until 
he reached a place where he was known, as he 
feared that otherwise we might be mobbed. 
By rapid driving he reached this point. Draw- 
ing up before the door of a tavern, we immedi- 
ately dismounted, and were invited to enter by 
a house-servant, who led us to a small fire at 
which we might warm ourselves. As we sat 
there, a hard-looking female came in, and seeing 
my hand bound up, asked me what ailed it. I 
responded that I had caught cold in an old 
bruise which had assumed somewhat the charac- 
ter of a felon. She inquired if she could do 
anything for it. I thanked her, and told her 
that I had a poultice of sweet gum on it. 

We were presently shown up to our cham- 
ber, and went to bed. My hand pained me so 
much, however, that I could not sleep ; and get- 
ting up, I took a pan of water, and putting into 
it a lump of opium, which I obtained from my 
comrade, I laid my hand in it, and so passed the 
remainder of the night. 



180 BEYOXD THE LINES ; OR 

We resumed our journey at an early "hour, 
and pressed forward in order to reach the rail- 
road, which was not quite finished to Hockins- 
ville. On the road we were compelled to stop 
at the house of a man named Phillips. He was 
very wealthy, owning over two hundred and 
seventy-five slaves, and a fine plantation. He 
was a bitter and unrelenting secessionist, and 
therefore the sheriff thought it best not to men- 
tion what or who we were. Our horses were 
put up, and we entered the dwelling. Phillips 
came in almost immediately after, and opened 
a conversation about the war. The sheriff in- 
quired of him if he had any late papers. 

'' I don't take no papers !" he rejoined ;"1 can't 
read. But," added he, casting a glance at us, 
*' there was some men hunting round here the 
other day for them Yankees that got away at 
Macon, and I only wish they'd catch the thieves, 
and shoot them I" 

This was not pleasant to our ears, and the 
disagreeable sensation was considerably in- 
creased, as Phillips, nodding his head towards us, 
asked the sheriff' his errand to Macon with us. 

Our friend hesitated a moment to reply, but 
finally stated his mission. Phillips instantly 
flew into a rage, and commenced to swear and 
threaten dreadfully. The sheriff told him that 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN I»1XIE. 181 

I was a Yirginian, and of like sentiments with 
himself, and so forth, but it did not effect much. 
Phillips spoke of the outrageous conduct of our 
men, and Butler's famous New Orleans Procla- 
mation, and swore,, with a horrid oath, that if he 
had his own way, he would shoot every Yankee 
that was caught. I rose, and walked outside, 
and was followed by Phillips, who seemed fear- 
ful of trusting me near the negroes who were 
hanging round the house, and in whose faces I 
could see an expression that showed they fully 
comprehended who we were. 

Presently the sound of the approaching train 
came gratefully to our ears. When it arrived, 
however, we learned that it would make a stop 
of an hour, as a number of conscripts were to 
be put aboard. Fearing to remain longer in 
Phillips's house, we adjourned into the neigh- 
boring pines to avoid the mob. One after an- 
other, several wagons, loaded with conscripts, 
drove up. These conscripts and their friends 
had, by some means or other, heard of our ar- 
rest, but did not know that we were the men. 
They spoke favorably of us, however, and 
were heartily endorsed by some old ladies who 
had come hither with their sons, and who were 
decidedly opposed to the conscription. 
16 



182 BSiYOND TFIE LIXES; OR 



CHAPTEK XIY. 

On tlie Cars — An Old Acquaintance — His Reasons for being 
in the Army — Meeting the Slave we Chased — Rebel Ac- 
count of our Pursuit — Interesting Advertisement — In 
Jail Again — Captain Clay Crawford — Prison Fare — Rebel 
Barbarities — Taking Comfort. 

In due time we took our places on the train, 
and recommenced our journey. At the next 
stopping-place, a man in rebel uniform ap- 
proached me, and said : 

"I think I know you, sir." 

I made no reply, supposing his object was 
merely to quarrel with me. He repeated his 
remark, and still I refused to notice him. The 
third time he spoke, he said : 

''Your name is Eev. J. J. Geer, and you 
come from Cincinnati, Ohio. You used to 
preach there in the George street Methodist 

Protestant Church. I am , who studied 

medicine with Dr. Newton oi that city." 

He extended his hand, and I instantly grasped 
it, and shook it heartily. I would state his 
his name ; but, for the same reason that I sup- 
press the sheriff's, I must also omit his. Step- 
ping back to where he had set down a basket. 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 183 

my old acqaaiiitaace brought me some biscuits 
and roast chicken. After this welcome ^ift had 
been properly attended to, the donor introduced 
me to his lady, who was a fine, intelligent-look- 
ing person. Her husband then taking his s at 
beside me, we fell into conversation, the chances 
of being overheard being small, on account of 
the noise made by the train. Said he to a ques- 
tion of mine : 

'' I should never have taken any part in this 
war, could I have helped myself. But when 
the conscription law was passed, I knew there 
was no chance for my escaping it, nor could I 
remove with my family. If I rem^ained, I must 
go into the army as a private. This I could 
not endure, and so I obtained an office." 

At this moment, the cars suddenly stopped, 
and an officer attended by a guard, who must 
have partially overheard the last portion of the 
speaker's remarks, ordered him to leave me, and 
take a seat in another part of the car. 

Presently, we reached a place where we were 
detained three hours. While waiting here, the 
master of that negro whom we chased in the 
swamp, and whom I have before mentioned as 
having a basket of corn strapped to his back, 
stepped aboard of the train. He came forward 
smiling, and, taking us by the hand, told us 



184 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

what a fierce chase he had had after us. He then 
asked us if he should call the negro in, and on 
receiving an affirmative answer, did so. 

I asked, with the permission of his master, 
why he ran from us in the swamp. 

" Kase, sah, I thought you wuz Tom Jimmer 
son, an' he said he'd shoot me if he ever had 
a chance." 

This negro seemed excessively ignorant ; but 
this is a habit with them all, as a general thing, 
when their masters are present. 

'' Where in the d 1 did you hide," asked 

the owner of this slave, " when we were after 
you?" 

'' Where did you look ?" queried L' 

"Well," said he, '^ when the boy came in and 
told me that he had seen you in the swamp, I 
went down to the soldiers who were hunting 
you on the river, and put them on the lookout. 
Then I returned and started out all the dogs in 
the neighborhood. One of these, an old hound, 
that belonged to Tom Brown, never before 
failed to bring to us his game within a short 
time after he took the tracks. In two hours, 
sixteen of us, with the two negroes and the 
hounds, were after you hot-footed. Not long 
after we put the dogs on your track, they got 
confused, and ran my own boy up to the house. 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 185 

I called them back, and in returning, Brown's 
old dog struck round a ience*aswe thought, on 
your track. He kept on the branch back of my 
field, and there crossed and went up the creek, 
with the whole pack at his heels. We followed 
after, and found that he crossed the water again, 
and came down the other side to where he 
crossed the first time. There the scent was 
lost, and the dogs gave it up. We hunted 
round there till nearly night, and not fin ding- 
any one, went down to the river to guard it. 
When we got there, the corporal advised me, 
with six or eight others, to go up the river and 
take another hunt ; but, of course, it brought no 



My comrade here informed the narrator how 
we had been lying concealed under the palm- 
leaves, and watching all their motions, at a 
distance of not over a hundred yards or so. 
This astonished him very much ; so much so, 
indeed, that he seemed to doubt it, until Collins 
repeated to him the identical expressions used 
on that occasion by himself, his companions, 
and the soldiers. He then turned to the sheriff, 
and said with an oath : 

" I've hunted bear, and deer, and fox, and 
never failed ; but these Yankees fooled me bad." 
16* 



186 BEYOND THE LINES ; OR 

The sheriff* told him we were Yirginians, 
which seemed to relieve him, as he exclaimed : 

'^ Well, I thought Yankees couldn't have so 
much pluck." 

One fact he was rather curious about, and 
that was, how we had thrown the bloodhounds 
off our track so easily. But this knowledge, 
which had been imparted to us by the negroes, 
we refused to divulge. 

'' Well," said he in conclusion, '•' I wish you 
a long life ; and if I had the say in it, I'd let 

you go free, for you're none of these d d 

Yankees." 

At this moment the cars started, and he, 
bidding us another good-bye, leaped off, and we 
saw him no more. 

Soon after this little incident, my friend, the 
sheriff, got a paper which he handed to me. In 
it I noticed an account of the recapture of Cap- 
tain Clay Crawford, who was in prison with us, 
and had escaped at the same time, but had been 
separated from us in the alarm of that occasion. 
I read also an advertisement of one J. J. Geer, 
described as follows : " Six feet and three-fourths 
of an inch in height, black hair, and blue eyes." 
Lieutenant A. P. Collins was also named, but 
without any description. 

I knew instantly that I had been reported by 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 187 

the man that I mentioned in the beginning of 
my narrative as having been a deceiver. He 
had measured me in Columbus jail, Mississippi, 
and, as I was in my bare feet at the time, this 
measurement was short, as by all military 
standards I always measured six feet two 
inches. 

There were other unpleasant items in this 
paper, the principal one of which was that in 
reference to McClellan's retreat from before 
Kichmond. 

In due season we arrived at the end of our 
journey, Macon, Greorgia. In conferring with 
the sheriff on the subject of our future course, I 
told him it would be best for his own safety to 
take us to the prison as soon as possible. This 
he did ; and it was but a short time after, that 
we were again face to face with the tyrant 
Ey lander. He sent us under a guard of four 
men to our cells, Avhere the jailor came and 
robbed us of our money. He took also our 
watches, which until now we had succeeded in 
carrying. We were then heavily ironed, and 
left in those filthy cells with only a little straw 
to lie upon, and this full of odious vermin. 

We ascertained that it was true concerning 
Captain Clay Crawford's recapture. He be- 
lonn^ed to a Missouri reo^iment, and was a 



188 BEYOND THE LINE ; OR 

genteel, manly comrade, never, like most of his 
companions, jeering at religion or its advocates. 
He was a graduate of West Point, and conse- 
quently a man well versed in military matters. 

Hearing of our return. Captain Crawford, 
wlio was confined close to us, made himself 
known, and a conversation was shortly opened. 
We learned from him that he had succeeded in 
making his escape at the same time we did, 
dressed in a rebel uniform. Going boldly to the 
Provost Marshal's office, he passed himself off 
for a Confederate officer, and obtained a pass to 
Savannah, where he hoped to be able to get 
aboard a United States gunboat. His know- 
ledge of the South and Southern officers, and 
the fact that there was a Captain Crawford in 
the rebel army, assisted him greatly. In one 
or two places through which he passed, he was 
in peril from Union sympathizers, who looked 
upon him as an enemy. In all these localities 
he found that all the young, able-bodied men 
had been swept into the army, while the old 
men who were left behind were very decided 
Unionists. This I may add was exactly my 
own experience. 

I asked him what fare he got in prison. 

"• Oh," said he, " nothing but corn-meal and 
maggots !" 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 189 

That he stated truth in regard to the food, I 
had ample proof, when at night a negro brought 
us some boiled colards, a species of cabbage. 
He carried it in a dirty-looking bucket, mixed 
with corn bread, made of meal and water. Pro- 
ducing two tin plates, he put a mess of the col- 
ards on each, and then pushed them through the 
grating of our cell to us. The greens appeared 
to have been boiled with something like meat, 
or rather scraps of refuse fat, certainly not fit 
for anything save soap-grease. On close inspec- 
tion of the mess, we could see the maggots, which, 
by way of curiosity, we commenced to pick out. 
By the time we had picked out half a teaspoon- 
ful of large fat ones — not skippers, but mag- 
gots — our stomachs, hungry as they were, sick- 
ened, and we could not touch the horrid food. 

We then examined our haversacks and a 
pillow-slip that old Aunt Kate had given us. In 
the latter, as much to our gratification as sur- 
prise, we found two fine roasted chickens, and 
plenty of elegant corn bread made with molas- 
ses. After enjoying this good fare, we knelt 
and raised our voices in thanks to the Lord, who 
still watched and guarded us. "We felt very 
happy, and made the misty old prison ring 
again with our hymns of praise. 

The night passed slowly, for my wounded 



190 BEYOND THE LINES; OK 

hand and foot pained me exceedingly. With 
the return of daylight, conversation with Cap- 
tain Crawford was resumed, and we learned that 
in his cell with him was a man named Rowley, 
who was from Florida. He, like ourselves, had 
attempted to pass the lines, but was recaptured 
in the act. 

Originally residing in Florida, taking no part 
in the war, and attending quietly to his own 
business, he had been suddenly arrested. The 
circumstances thereof were as follows : " On the 
night of August 20th, 1861, a party of ruffians 
surrounded his dwelling, and without the 
slightest warning, battered in the door, and 
rushed into his house. So unexpected and so 
fierce was the attack, that his wife, who was in 
a delicate condition of health at the time, sank 
swooning to the floor. The astonished husband, 
not stopping to defend himself, sprang to the 
assistance of his wife. While thus engaged, 
his assailants seized him, and roughly binding 
his hands behind him, dragged him from the 
house, and mounted him upon a mule, which 
they immediately drove off* with them. When 
thus ruthlessly torn from the bosom of his fam- 
ily, he was looking forward with a husband's 
food anxiety to the moment which was to make 
him a father. And now, more than eleven 



A YAXKKE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 191 

months had passed away, but he had never 
heard any tidings of his family or property. He 
owned several slaves. Whether his loving wife 
had survived the shock she had received on the 
night in question, or whether the angels of a 
merciful God had carried her own soul, and 
that one yet unborn, away to heaven, he did 
not know. 

His captors had taken him to a negro jail, 
and cast him into a filthy cell, in which he laid 
for three or four days, eating nor drinking 
nothing. By this time, they deemed him suffi- 
ciently reduced to become subservient to their 
will. They accordingly took him from his cell, 
and brought him to a man they styled '' Colonel." 
By this man he was ordered to take a certain 
oath. Upon his refusal, he was shown a rope 
that had been used in the execution of four 
of his neighbors, and he v/as informed that it 
was still strong enough to hang him. The man 
who held the rope strode toward him for the 
purpose of placing it around his neck. Thus 
convinced that there was something more than 
menace meant, he attempted to reason with his 
brutal captors, informing them that he was so 
bewildered that he did not comprehend what 
they wished him to do. 

The person called Colonel thereupon ordered 



192 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

him to be remanded to his cell. The next day, 
hearing that the Union forces were approaching 
them, they hurried their poor prisoner to Macon. 

This man gave me accounts of the most 
horrid scenes that he had witnessed. At one 
period, he said that it was certain death for a 
man to refuse to volunteer. 

Our second day of imprisonment passed dully 
enough, and indeed it would have been much 
worse, but for the converse we held with 
Captain Crawford and Mr. Kowley, whose prin- 
cipal theme was the lightness of their rations. 
Their allowance of corn-bread, for instance, 
was a bit about one and a half inches square 
twice a day. My wounds were exceedingly 
painful, but I was obliged to suffer on without 
obtaining any relief Before I lay down for 
the night, however, I comforted myself with 
joining my comrade in singing those beautiful 
lines — 

*' From every stormy wind that blows, 
And every swelling tide of woe, 
There is a calm, a safe retreat ; 
'Tis found beneath the mercy-seat." 

God's blessing made us happy, and we could 
exclaim with faith, '^ These chains will not 
always hold us here." How insigoificaiit were 
our sufferings when compared to those which 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 198 

had been endured by the followers of Christ in 
ancient times I Again, while on our wretched 
couches, we sang : 

" My days are gliding swiftly by, 
And I, a pilgrim stranger, 
Would not detain them as they fly — 
These hours of toil and danger." 

The next day I penned a letter to Major 
Kylander, exhorting him, if he had any fear of 
God before his eyes, or any spark of humanity 
in his breast, to have me released from my 
miserable cell, though it were to take me to 
execution. I committed it to the care of a 
negro, who was to convey it to the guard, who 
in turn was to present it to Major Rylander. 
Whether the latter ever received it, I never 
knew, but certainly if he did, he never noticed 
it. 



n 



194 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 



CHAPTER XV. 

An Earnest Prayer— What came of it — A Skeptic — Fiend- 
Stratagem — Reflections and Opinions on the " Peculiar 
Institution." 

Night again found me still suffering, and still a 
captive. The next day I heard from Captain 
Crawford that the prayer which I put up that 
evening to the Throne of Grace was rather 
eccentric, very strong, and directed specially to 
the- case of our oppressive jailor. I suppose it 
must have been rather so, for the jailor visited 
me the next day. His house was in the prison- 
yard directly opposite my window. 

Entering my cell, as I have said, he ordered 
me to follow him. I did so, not knowing 
what fate I was about to meet. When out of 
hearing of my fellow-prisoners, he said : 

''Who is that who prays in this prison every 
night ? It is you, I suspect." 

"I presume so," replied I, '' for it is my habit 
to pray night and morning ; for I am told in the 
good Book to pray for my enemies, and I ap- 
prehend you are one." 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 195 

" Well, now, there's no use in fooling ! Did 
j6u pray for the Lord to kill me ?" 

" No, sir," said I, " I prayed for the Lord to 
convert you, or else kill you." 

" Well, you prayed for them fellows the Bible 
speaks of," he rejoined, referring to the Apos- 
tles Paul and Silas." 

" Yes," I answered. 

" Well, that's all one tarnal big lie I" 

•'< Why, sir," I inquired, '• do you not believe 
in the Bible ?" 

'^ No ! I don't believe one tarnal word of it, I 
don't." 

*' Then, sir, if you escape the rod of God in 
this life, you certainly will not in eternity." 

"See here, sir," he rejoined angrily, ''you 
had better mind what you say." 

'' I will speak my mind whenever it pleases me 
to do so," I said, looking the jailor directly in 
the eye. 

In this strain the conversation continued, till 
at length he became so enraged, that, pushing 
me violently back in my cell, he locked me fast 
to a staple driven into the floor. 

While lying thus, a negro came and gazed 
intently at me, through the bars of the cell 
door. This he repeated many times during the 



196 BEYOND THE LINES ; OR 

day, and at night I asked him if lie belonged to 
the jailor. 

"No, sah," said he/ 'I b'long to the richest 
man in dis county." 

" What are you in here for ?" 

He dropped his voice almost to a whisper, as 
he replied : 

" Two white fellers came to my quarters one 
night, and got me to go with 'em. Dey had dar 
faces blacked all ober. Den dey crawled into a 
winder whar dar wus some white gals, an' de 
gals dey hollered, an' de two fellers dey runned. 
an' I runned arter 'em. But I didn't know 
what they'd done, an' so I stopped, an' de white 
men what run arter all o' us, cotched me, an' 
brought me down here. Den dey chained me like 
you is now, and den de white rascals what had 
blacked 'em selves, dey runned off right away. 
But dey won't b'lieve a poor darkey. Now, 
massa, Tom White, an' he's a white man, seed 
dem white fellers what blacked dar faces, an' 
he told 80, an' den I was tuk out o' de cell." 

Here the poor creature started after the 
jailor for the performance of some duty. 

I was now desirous to know what Captain 
Crawford's candid opinion was concerning slav- 
ery, but the loud tones in which we were 
forced to talk prevented me, for fear of drawing 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 197 

down some cruel punisiiment upon us. I con- 
versed on the subject, however, with my com- 
rade, Lieutenant Collins, and we both resolved 
never to cease its agitation so long as the Lord 
gave us life, and so long as there remained a 
single slave on the fair soil of Columbia. Our 
minds were much strengthened in this resolve 
by recalling to memory the teachings of Wash- 
ington, Adams, Monroe, and others. Abigail 
Adams, the mother of John Quincy Adams, 
said : 

'' I wish most sincerely that there was not a 
slave in the Province." 

Benjamin Franklin, whose life was my school- 
book, in an address to the Senate and House of 
Eepresentatives, said: 

" From a persuasion that equal liberty was 
originally the portion, and is still the birthright, 
of all men, and influenced by the strong ties of 
humanity, and the principle of their institution, 
your memorialists conceive themselves bound to 
use all justifiable endeavors to loosen the bands 
of slavery ; that you will be pleased to counte- 
nance the restoration of liberty to these unhap- 
py men, who alone, in this land of Freedom, are 
degraded into perpetual bondage, and who, 
amidst the general joy of surrounding freemen, 
are groaning in servile subjection ; that you will 
17^ ' 



198 

devise means for removing this inconsistency 
from the character of the American people ; that 
you will promote mercy and justice towards 
this distressed race ; and that you will step to 
the very verge of the power vested in you, for 
discouraging every species of traffic in the per- 
sons of our fellow-men." — B. F., Pres't {F. Ga- 
zette, 1790). 

During the dreary night I often awoke, and I 
remember once, when thus arousing, those beau- 
tiful lines came into my mind : 

'* "When for the rights of man we fight, 

And all seems lost, and friends have fled, 
Remembering in Misfortune's night, 

New glory rests on Virtue's head, 
Duty remains, though joy is gone. 

On final good I fix mine eyes ; 
Distance all fear, and, though alone, 

Stand ready for the sacrifice." 



A YANKEE FKISONEK LOOSE IN DIXIE. 199 



CHAPTER XVI. 

The Rebel Reveille — A Horrid Dinner — A Reinforcement of 
Little Rebels — The Darkie's Explanation — An Exciting 
Trial — Hope of Release — Retribution — My Old Chains 
doing good Service. 

The dawn came at last, bringing with it the 
reveille of the rebel drums, and the yelling of 
rebel guards. Our rations, however, took a 
longer time to reach us, for it was not until about 
eleven o'clock that the negro brought us a mess 
of the stereotyped greens and corn-bread. A 
glance into the pan showed us that the maggots 
had received heavy reinforcements ; but so, also, 
had our hunger gained strength, and we were 
glad to receive even the repulsive maggots and 
spoiled-bread, and thank God we fared so well. 
I could not forbear questioning the negro con- 
cerning this outrageous food, and from him I 
received the following explanation : 

The jailor had some time before purchased a 
lot of meat at a lower figure than it could now 
be bought for, for the reason that a portion of 
of it was tainted. The worst of this meat had 



200 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

been thrown aside into a large box used for 
holding soap grease. 

'' He tole me, sah," said the negro, to go to 
dat box and get dat meat, an' when I tole him 
it stink like de debbil, he swore de tallest kind 
o' swore, dat I lied, an' fur me to go git it, as it 
wus plenty good 'nuff for dem d d Yan- 
kees. I'se sorry, sah, but I had to do as massa 
tole me." 

We were satisfied with the poor slave's ex- 
planation, and shutting our eyes, demolished 
our horrid dinner to the last atom, and were 
still as hungry as ever, for the quantity of the 
food was as meagre as its quality. As yet I 
had received no reply to the letter I had sent 
out by the hands of the negro, to whom I have 
previously referred. Days and nights passed 
successively in monotonous misery, and still I 
beheld the face of no friend save that One 
which beamed down from above, and supported 
me in all my trials. Whenever we got the 
opportunity, we used to question the negroes as 
to their opinions and ideas concerning the war 
and slavery. In so doing, we assumed a great 
risk, as a white man who is caught conversing 
with the slaves, receives the most rigorous treat- 
ment. One day I asked the slave, who brought 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 201 

US our scanty supply of loathsome food, what 
he thought of the war. 

'' God bless you, sah/' he answered, in the 
same whispering tones of caution as I myself 
had used, " I knows all 'bout it, an' all us niggas 
knows all 'bout it. Why I couldn't tell you 
half what we knows an' what we says 'mong 
ourselves, sahl" 

''God grant that more light may be sent into 
the land of the slave, and salvation to the down- 
trodden inhabitants thereof!" prayed I, as the 
negro, seeing his master, hurried away from 
our cell. 

Our rest was much disturbed at night by the 
howling and yelping of a dog, which was 
doubtless as much ill treated and starved as we 
were ourselves. 

Time rolled on, but still no event occurred to 
dispel the gloom that surrounded me, until I 
learned that the man I had met on the cars, 
and who, it will be remembered, asserted that 
he had known me in Cincinnati, had arrived in 
Macon. I learned, also, that he was reporting it 
about the town, that in Ohio T was possessed of 
some de2:ree of influence. The faithful slave 
who told me this added : 

" One of you is a g wine to be taken out, for 



202 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

I heard de sheriff say that a lot o' people went 
to the Major, and wanted him to let you out." 

This was, of course, like a star of hope in a 
dark horizon, and day after day I awaited the 
appearance of some deliverer who should bid 
me walk forth free. But, alas! it was a delu- 
sive dream, for none came, and I was no nearer 
liberty than ever. 

About this time, an occurrence took place 
which I here record, to show the workings of that 
pernicious system which is the real root of all 
our national troubles. I was standing at the 
bars of my cell, looking out into the prison 
yard, and saw Woods, the jailor, order the 
negro, who used to wait on us, to bring him an 
ax. Upon receiving it, he deliberately broke 
off the lock of a trunk that belonged to Cap- 
tain Clay Crawford, and took therefrom a watch 
and several cards of jewelry. Soon after the 
darkey brought us our rations, and upon our 
speaking of the affair, he was quite surprised 
that we knew of it. He said the trunk was 
Mr. Crawford's, and smiled knowingly. 

Two days after, a party of men came for the 
trunk, and found it broken open, as I have 
stated. They, of course, called the jailor to 
account, and he was fairly implicated in the 
matter. Without hesitation, however, the vile 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 203 

robber accused the poor negro of having com- 
mitted the act. Of course the latter denied 
the charge, and told the whole truth about it. 
This enraged Woods, and he tied him up to a 
rough timber cross so that, while his arms were 
stretched to their utmost extent, his toes barely 
touched the ground. He then took a heavy 
whip, with three thongs, and lashed the unfor- 
tunate negro until his shirt was actually soaked 
in blood. 

Occasionally the monster ceased a moment, 
and bade the victim of his brutality to confess 
to the deed ; but with the most heroic fortitude 
the poor slave refused to comply, and Woods, 
finding that he could not succeed thus, untied 
the bleeding man, and threw him into the cell 
next to our own. 

Between us there was only an iron grating, 
so that we could converse with the negro, and 
see with our own eyes the horrible treatment 
to which he had been subjected. 

As chance had it. Captain Clay Crawford 
himself had been a witness of all the proceed- 
ings, and upon seeing the negro so unmerci- 
fully beaten, he lost his temper, and uttered a 
torrent of oaths, swearing that he saw the 
jailor do the deed. As he was regarded, how- 
ever, as a Yankee, his word had no more effect 



201 BEYOND THE LINES ; OR 

than tlie negro's. As I gazed upon the quiver- 
ing back of that poor, downtrodden African, I 
exclaimed, in the words of Thomas Pr ingle: 

*'0h, slavery, thougli art a bitter draught, 
And twice accursed is thy poisoned bowl, 
Which taints with leprosy the white man's soul !" 

In the power of such monsters what might 
not we expect at their blood-stained hands ? 
There was but one Deliverer for us, as well as 
the slave, and that deliverer was God, and on 
Him we cast ourselves, feeling that He was all 
powerful. Job truly wrote : 

"The wicked man travaileth with pain all 
his days, and the number of years is hidden to 
the oppressor." 

And with equal truth did the prophet exclaim : 

'' So I returned, and considered all tho op- 
pression that is done under the sun, and beheld 
the tears of such as were oppressed, and they 
had no comfort. And on the side of the op- 
pressed there was power, but they had no com- 
fort." 

Oh, may the hand be stilled in death that 
would raise itself to defend such a system ! 

While the jailor was in the midst of his 
trouble, the star of hope that had arisen on the 
coming to Macon of my Ohio friend, and then 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 205 

set SO suddenly, came up once more, but with 
more cheering brilliancy this time ; for, through 
the hubbub that he had raised, I was released 
from my prison cell the very day on which the 
poor negro, who had been so unmercifully 
lashed, was to have his trial. I was scarcely 
fit to be seen, for I was yet clothed in the 
wretched rags in which I had lived for several 
months. Yet, notwithstanding this, when I 
appeared before the Major, whose opinion, since 
having heard of my real character and position, 
was wonderfully changed, he began to bovv^ and 
scrape in his best style. 

" Oh, sir," he exclaimed, '* I did not know 
that you were a minister, or I would not have 
had you put into that cell. And now," added 
he, " I will give you a parole of the town, and 
you may report, here every morning." 

As commissioners had come to terms con- 
cerning the exchange of prisoners, the only ob- 
ject that the contemptible Major had in view, 
was to induce me, upon my return home, to 
speak well of him and his friends. I must con- 
fess that I lost my temper. However, I said 
nothing, but, called, in very positive tones, for a 
guard to accompany me to the military prison, 
which was near at hand. As I was going thither, 
the thought that the poor negro was to be tried 
18 



206 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

that day for the offence which had been really 
committed by his master, shot across my mind, 
and I resolved that I would do my duty in the 
matter. I instantly returned to the comman- 
dant, and asked him to give me a parole of the 
town. This he forthwith did, as he imagined 
that I wished to purchase new clothing. He 
furnished me, also, with two guards with loaded 
muskets. I then went to the building where 
the trial was being held. Upon entering the 
room, I saw the poor, friendless slave, loaded 
with chains, sitting in the culprit's dock, while 
the brutal Woods sat confidently near him, 
fully expecting to have him condemned. When 
I mildl}'- requested the court to allow me to 
speak a word in defence of the accused, Woods 
sprang to his feet, and swore that they would 

not listen to any d d Yankee. This brought 

the owner of the negro to his feet, with the 
exclamation, that I was a white man, and, con- 
sequently, entitled to speak. A long debate 
ensued on this point, which was settled finally 
in my favor, and I took the stand. 

''Gentlemen," I began, " I am a Yankee pris- 
oner. I have been in some three or four of 
your county jails, and several of your peniten- 
tiaries ; but still your commandant has confidence 
in me, and has given a parole of the town, and 



A YANKEE PKISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 207 

your surgeon has made statements which prove 
me to be a man of some little credit at home. 
If, therefore, I shall find any favor in your 
eyes, I will make a statement in reference to 
the matter on trial." 

I paused until I was assured by the court 
that what I had to say would receive credence, 
and then resumed : 

'^I saw that man, Woods, who sits here at 
my right, force the prisoner at the bar to bring 
him an axe. Upon receiving it, he deliberately 
broke open the trunk referred to, and took 
therefrom a watch and a card of jewelry. Sub- 
sequently, that he might extort from the pri- 
soner a false acknowledgment of guilt, he tied 
him up, and beat him most inhumanly." 

This brought Woods to his feet once more, 
livid with rage. 

'' You don't mean to say that I broke open 
that trunk, do you, sir ?" he ejaculated, shaking 
at me his clenched fists. 

'^ I do ; and you know you did it !" was my 
prompt reply. 

The villain thereupon lost all control of him- 
self, and, drawing a bowie-knife, swore ven- 
geance upon me. I quietly stepped back, and 
placed myself between the two guards, who, 



208 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

lowering their pieces, prepared to protect me, 
should my assailant attempt to do me violence. 

I then made a statement that my testimony 
could be corroborated, if necessary, by Captain 
Clay Crawford himself, and Lieutenant Collins, 
both officers in the United States army. He 
quibbled, and protested, and reasoned, and 
raved alternately ; but it was all useless, and 
when at last I told the mmutest particulars 
about the affair, such as where the negro took 
the axe from, et cetera, he was forced to give in, 
and was accordingly found guilty, while the 
poor black fellow was released amid the most 
tumultuous excitement. 

To show that Providence was retributive in 
this case, I need only state that the crest-fallen 
culprit was taken from court, placed in the 
same cell in which I had "been incarcerated, was 
chained with the same irons, slept on the same 
filthy bed, and I have no doubt was bitten and 
tormented by the identical little inhabitants of 
the last, by which I had been long annoyed, so 
much to his merriment. 

Before my time was out, I reported at the 
jail, and then went over to the military prison, 
where I had a bone removed from my wounded 
hand. I then passed in among the prisoners, 
and while conversing with them, I was obliged 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 209 

to repeat the story of my escape and recapture 
many times. That night, on account of the 
pain I sufiered, I was unable to sleep, and so I 
spent the still hours in reflections on my situa- 
tion, God's mercy and goodness, and on those 
dear ones at home, who were then, most likely, 
peacefully slumbering and dreaming of a soldier 
of the Union, far away in a Southern prison, 
wounded and weary, and no one even to speak 
a word of kindness to him. 

The next day I heard of many deaths which 
had occurred during my absence. Quite a 
number of the names were familiar to me, and 
my heart was indeed sad. Some of these noble 
fellows died shouting for Grod and their country 
with their last breath. Think of it, reader, 
and let it awaken your grateful remembrances 
for the heroic martyrs. They had left pleasant 
homes, fruitful fields, beloved relations, and 
cherished friends, to fight and suffer for the 
Union. And there, in a loathsome prison, with- 
out a pillow for their dying heads, without a 
covering, without proper food, without medi- 
cine, without water even to slake their burning 
tongues, they died, a glorious sacrifice on a 
glorious altar. 



18* 



210 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 



CHAPTEE XYII. 

Sufferings of Captives — Shooting a Deaf Man — A Terrible 
Punishment — Arguments on Slavery — Opinions of Cele- 
brated Men — A Sabbath School in Prison — A Loyal Lady 
— Pennsylvania a Pioneer — Emancipation — Our Prayer- 
Meetings — Rays of Sunshine. 

A LARGE proportion of the prisoners in Macon 
were nearly naked, and actually were obliged 
to wrap rags of blankets about themselves to 
hide their nakedness, and many times, while 
listening to their stories of wrong and woe, I 
was moved to tears. Among several harrowing 
incidents, about this time occurred the shooting 
of one of our party, a political prisoner, if I 
remember right, who was deaf A brutal 
guard had fired on him because he did not 
obey some order which he had given, but which 
of course, the victim did not hear. I saw the 
poor fellow writhing in his death-agonies. The 
shot had pierced directly through his bowels, 
inflicting a horrid and mortal wound. 

Another man named Flood, for the offence 
of coming nearer than ten feet to the guard- 
lines, was pinned down to the earth. As this 
punishment is doubtless not understood by a 




o _; 



o As 



'^ 2 

t. OS 

O) oS 

73 O) 






P. a 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 211 

majority of readers, I will describe it. The 
person subjected to it is thrown to the ground, 
either face or back down, according to the whim 
of the punisher, and while held in this position, 
a number of stakes or wooden pins are driven 
in the earth around him, in such a manner as 
to bind him immovably to the ground. A 
more terrible punishment can scarcely be con- 
ceived. 

Flood was a large man, and possessed of im- 
mense strength ; and the first time he was thus 
pinned down, he tore himself loose from his fas- 
tenings. Upon seeing this, his captors again 
seized him. But he struggled manfully, and it 
was not until six or eight powerful men attacked 
him simultaneously, and with weapons, that he 
was secured. This done, however, they obtained 
stakes that an ox could not have broken, and 
with these they fastened their victim down so 
firmly, that it was impossible for him to move 
half an inch. And in this position, he lay face 
down for tiventy-four hours, during which time a 
heavy rain fell. In consequence he took a 
fatal cold, and, four days later, he was laid in 
the grave. This punishment was quite common 
among the rebels. 

Wliile listening to the accounts of my fellow- 
prisoners, especially concerning the deaf man 



212 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

and Flood, I could not help thinking bitterly of 
the thousands in the free Korth, who, while our 
country is struggling for existence, are apolo- 
gizing for the vile system which breeds such 
monsters as I have been describing. Oh 
reader, if you would be just to yourself and to 
God, and not allow your mind to be influenced 
by the fallacies with which traitors would de- 
lude you, you would at once perceive the foun- 
tain-spring of all our national troubles to be 
naught else but slavery. And here, at the 
expense of interrupting my personal narrative, 
I have concluded to advance some facts and 
arguments in support of my conclusions. It is 
a most common and dangerous fallacy to con- 
demn the emancipation theory of Abraham 
Lincoln, as the cause of this terrible bloodshed 
that has been going on for two years past. 
Now I assume the opposite side of the argu- 
ment, and find myself supported therein, not 
only by common sense, but all the teachings of 
past history. 

When the question of immediate abolition 
was first agitated in England, the friends of 
slavery were loud in their belief that universal 
insurrection and bloodshed would follow ; and 
nothing could have taken a stronger hold on 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 213 

the sympathies and fears of the people than 
these same assertions. 

In June, 1793, a civil war occurred between 
the aristocrats and republicans of St. Domingo, 
and the planters called in the aid of Great 
Britain. The opposing party proclaimed free- 
dom to all slaves, and armed them against the 
British. It is generally supposed that the abo- 
lition of slavery in St. Domingo was in conse- 
quence of insurrection among the slaves. 
Nothing is farther from the truth, for the 
whole measure was nothing more nor less than 
one of political expediency. A little research 
into the histories of the island about this period 
will show that the whole colored population 
remained faithful to the republicans to whom 
they owed their liberty. 

The British were defeated, and were obliged 
to evacuate the island ; but they still held pos- 
session of the ocean, and consequently troubled 
the French to such an extent, that the latter 
were entirely unable to look after St. Domingo. 
The colonists were therefore left to themselves. 
Certainly here was an opportunity for the 
breaking forth of that dreaded^ insurrection 
which had been predicted as the sure result of 
immediate abolition. Yet, on the contrary, 
though there were Jive hundred thousand negroes, 



214 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

thus unfettered and made free, there was an 
actual decrease in crimC; and a corresponding 
increase in the prosperity and peace of the 
island. 

A resident, Colonel Malenfaut, says in his 
historical memoir : 

"After this public act of emancipation, the 
negroes remained quiet both in the south and 
west, and they continued to work upon all the 
plantations. Even upon those estates which 
had been abandoned by owners and managers, 
the negroes continued their labor where there 
were any agents to guide ; and where no white 
men were left to direct them, they betook them- 
selves to planting provisions. The colony was 
flourishing. The whites lived happily and in 
peace upon their estates, and the negroes con- 
tinued to work for them." 

General La Croix, in his memoir, speaking of 
the same period, writes : 

''The colony marched as by enchantment 
towards its ancient splendor ; cultivation pros- 
pered, and every day produced perceptible 
proofs of its progress. This prosperous state of 
things lasted about eight 3^ears, and would pro- 
bably have continued to this day, had not Bo- 
naparte, at the instigation of the old aristocratic 
French planters, sent an army to deprive the 



A YANKEE PRTSOXEPw LOOSE IX DIXIE. 215 

blacks of the freedom which they had used so 
well. It was the attempt to restore slavery that 
produced all the bloody horrors of St. Domingo. 
Emancipation produced the most blessed effects." 

In June, 1794, Victor Hugo, a French repub- 
lican general, retook the island of Guadaloupe 
from the British, and immediately proclaimed 
freedom to all the slaves. They were thirty-five 
thousand in number, and the whites thirteen 
thousand. No disaster whatever occurred from 
the humane action of Hugo. 

On the 10th of October, 1811, the Chilian 
Congress decreed that every child born after 
that date, should be free. Likewise, the con- 
gress of Columbia emancipated all slaves who 
had borne arms in defence of the Republic, and 
provided for the emancipation, in eighteen years, 
of the whole slave population, amounting to 
nine hundred thousand beings. 

September, 1829, saw immediate liberty 
granted by the government of Mexico to every 
slave in the realm. 

Now, in all these cases, not one single in- 
surrection or bloodshed has ever been heard of 
as resulting from emancipation. 

Even the thirty thousand Hottentots — the 
most ignorant, degraded people on the earth — 
who were manumitted at Cape Colony, in July, 



216 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

1823, gave instant evidence of improvement on 
being admitted to the rights and privileges of 
freemen. As a gentleman facetiously remarked, 
they worked far better for Mr. Cash than they 
had for Mr. Lash. 

A statement in the South African Commercial 
Advertiser, of February, 1813, read as follows : 

"Three thousand prize negroes have received 
their freedom — four hundred in one day. But 
not the least difficulty or disaster occurred. 
Servants found masters, and masters hired ser- 
vants ; all gained homes, and, at night, scarcely 
an idler was to be seen. To state that sudden 
emancipation would create disorder and distress 
to those you mean to serve, is not reason, but 
the plea of all men adverse to abolition." 

On the 1st of August, 1834, the government 
of Great Britain emancipated the slaves in all 
her colonies, of which she had twenty, viz., 
seventeen in the West Indies, and three in the 
East Indies. The numerical superiority of the 
negroes in the West was* great. In Jamaica, 
there were three hundred and thirty- one thou- 
sand slaves, and only thirty-seven thousand 
whites. 

Even by the clumsy apprenticeship system, 
where the stimulus of the whip was removed 
without being replaced by the stimulus of wages, 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 217 

the negroes were a little improved. They knew 
they would not be lashed if they did not woi'k, 
and that if they did work they would not be 
paid for it. Yet, under such disadvantages as 
these, there occurred no difficulty, excepting in 
three of the islands, and even there they were 
slight and only temporary. Even the bitterest 
enemies of abolition have not yet been able to 
show that a single drop of blood has been shed, 
or a single plantation destroyed, in consequence 
of emancipation in all the British West Indies! 

The journals of Antigua, where the appren- 
ticeship system was not tried, but the stimulus 
of wages applied at once, say : 

" The great doubt is solved, and the highest 
hopes of the negro's friends are fulfilled. Thirty 
thousand men have passed from slavery into 
freedom, not only without the slightest irregu- 
larity, but with the solemn and decorous tran- 
quillity of a Sabbath. In Antigua, there are 
two thousand whites, thirty thousand slaves, 
and four thousand five hundred free blacks." 

Antigua and St. Christopher's are within 
gunshot of each other, and both are sugar- 
growing colonies. In the latter island, the pro- 
portion of blacks is smaller than in the former, 
yet St. Christopher's has had some difficulty 
with the gradual system, while the quiet of 
19 



218 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

Antigua has not been disturbed for one hour 
by immediate manumission. Such facts are 
worth more than volumes of sophistry. 

If, however, the humane view be not allowed, 
let us look at the question in a pecuniary one. 
The results in this direction, of the British 
Emancipation Bill, are truly wonderful. To 
the astonishment of even the most sanguine 
friends of abolition, the plantations of the colo- 
nies are more productive, more easily managed, 
and accepted as security for higher sums or 
mortgages, than they ever were under the slave 
system. It appears from an official statement, 
that in the first quarter of the present year, 
there is an increase over the average of the first 
quarter of the three years preceding emanci- 
pation in the great staples of West Indian pro- 
duce exported, as follows : 

From Georgetown, Demarara, twenty per 
cent, increase. From Berbice, fifty per cent, 
increase. Coffee increased about one hundred 
per cent. 

The hundred million indemnity thus appears 
to have been a compensation for having been 
made richer. 

Now, with all this weight of testimony, it is 
impossible for the candid reader to cleave any 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 219 

longer to the idea that emanciption is the cause 
of all this misery. 

"If," says a distinguished logician, "you 
have a right to make another man a slave, he 
has a right to make you a slave." " And if we 
have no right," says Eamsey, "to sell him, no 
one has a right to purchase him. If ever 
negroes, bursting their chains, should come 
(which Heaven forbid !) on the European coast, 
to drag whites of both sexes from their families, 
to chain them, and conduct them to Africa, and 
mark them with a hot iron ; if whites stolen, 
sold, purchased by criminals, and placed under 
the guidance of merciless inspectors, were im- 
mediately compelled, by the stroke of the whip, 
to work in a climate injurious to their health, 
when at the close of each day they could have 
no other consolation than that of advancing an- 
other step to the tomb, no other perspective 
than to suffer and to die in all the anguish of 
despair ; if devoted to misery and ignominy, 
they were excluded from all the privileges of 
society, and declared legally incapable of judicial 
action, their testimony not admitted against the 
black class ; if, driven from the sidewalks, they 
were compelled to mingle with the animals in 
the middle of the street ; if a conscription were 
made to have them lashed in a mass, and their 



220 BEYOND TPIE LINES; OR 

backs, to prevent gangrene, covered with pep- 
per and salt ; if the forfeit for killing them were 
but a trifling sum ; if a reward were offered for 
apprehending those who escaped from slavery; 
if those who escaped were hunted by a pack of 
hounds, trained to carnage ; if, blaspheming 
the Divinity, the blacks pretended that by 
their origin they had permission of heaven to 
preach passive obedience and resignation to the 
whites ; if greedy, hireling writers published 
that, for this reason, just reprisals might be 
exercised against rebellious whites, and that 
white slaves were happy, more happy than the 
peasants in the bosom of Africa ; in a word, if 
all the arts of cunning calumny, all the strength 
and fury of avarice, all the invention of ferocity, 
were directed against you by a coalition of 
merchants, priests, kings, soldiers and colonists, 
what a cry of horror would resound through 
these countries! To express it, new epithets 
would be sought. A crowd of writers, and 
particularly poets, would exhaust their eloquent 
lamentations, provided, that having nothing to 
fear, there was something to gain. 

''Europeans, reverse this hypothesis, and see 
what you are. Yes, I repeat it, there is not a 
vice, not a species of wickedness, of which 
Europe is not guilty towards negroes, of which 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 221 

she lias not shown them the example. Aveng- 
ing God 1 suspend thy thunder, exhaust thy 
compassion in giving her time and courage to 
repair, if possible, these horrors and atrocities I" 

Now, these things are all perfectly reasonable. 
Though written a long time ago, they are now 
not the less true ; and those of us who may live 
to see the end of this war will know well the 
cause of it ; and I trust that the rising genera- 
tion may profit by the history of their fathers. 
May they learn from their earliest years to 
denounce the name that offers an apology for 
the dark curse of slavery ! 

It was of this evil that Jefferson spoke in 
the original Declaration of Independence, 
drafted by himself, but suppressed by Southern 
influence. The language is : 

''He has waged cruel war against human 
nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of 
life and liberty, in the persons of a distant peo- 
ple, who never offended him ; capturing them 
and carrying them into slavery in another 
hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in 
their transportation thither. This piratical 
warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is 
the warfare of the Christian King of Great 
Britain. Determined to keep open a market 
where men should be bought and sold, he has 
19- 



222 BEYOND THE LINES ; OR 

prostituted bis prerogative for suppressing every 
legislative attempt to prohibit or restrain this 
execrable commerce. And that this assemblage 
of horrors might want no fact of distinguished 
dye, he is now exciting those very people to 
rise in arms among us, and to purchase that 
liberty of which he has deprived them, thus 
paying off" former crimes committed against the 
liberties of one people, with crimes which he 
urges them to commit against the lives of 
another." 

The same spirit possessed the heart of Luther 
Martin, when, before the Legislature of Mary- 
land, he delivered a report concerning the topic 
of which we speak. The report was adopted 
by a majority of the convention, though not 
without considerable opposition. 

" It was said that we had just assumed a place 
among independent nations, in consequence of 
our opposition to the attempts of Great Britain 
to enslave us. That this opposition was ground- 
ed upon the preservation of those rights to 
which God and nature entitled us, not in par- 
ticular, but in common with all the rest of 
mankind. That we had appealed to the Su- 
preme Being for His assistance, as the God of 
freedom, who could not but approve our efforts 
to preserve the rights which he had thus iui- 



A YANKEE PKISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 223 

parted to all his creatures. That now, when we 
scared}^ had risen from our knees and suppli- 
cations for his aid and protection, in the form 
of government we had chosen, we proposed to 
have a provision therein, not only putting it 
out of its power to restrain and prevent the 
slave trade, but actually to encourage that most 
infamous traffic, by giving the States power 
and influence in the Union, in proportion as 
they cruelly and wantonly sported with the 
rights of their fellow creatures. Such a course 
ought to be considered a solemn mockery of, 
and insult to, that God whose protection we 
had implored, and it could not fail to hold us 
up to the detestation and contempt of every 
true friend of liberty in the world. National 
crimes can only be, and frequently are punished, 
at least, in the world, by national calamities. 
And if we thus give national sanction to the 
slave trade, we justly expose ourselves to the dis- 
pleasure and vengeance of Him who is equally 
Lord of all, and who views with equal eye the 
poor African slave and his American master." 

The same fire which dictated the above, 
burned also in Captain Eiley's heart, when he 
exclaimed : 

" Strange as it may seem to the philanthro- 
pist, my free and proud-spirited countrymen 



224 BEYO^'D THE LINES; OR 

still hold a million and a half of human beings 
in the most cruel bonds of slavery, who are 
kept at hard labor, and, smarting under the lash 
of inhuman, mercenary drivers, in many in- 
stances enduring the miseries of hunger, thirst, 
imprisonment, cold, nakedness, and even tor- 
tures. This is no picture of the imagination. 
For the honor of human nature, I wish like- 
nesses were nowhere to be found. I myself 
have witnessed such scenes in different parts of 
my own country, and the bare recollection of 
them now chills my blood with horror." 

In connection with this, we have the state- 
ment of De Witt Clinton, who, during the 
period of his legislative career — 1797 — bestowed 
a large portion of his attention to the protection 
of the public health, the promotion of agricul- 
ture, manufactures, and the arts, the gradual 
abolition of slavery, &c. 

The record of the proceedings of the Senate 
of Kew York for the sessions of 1809-11 
exhibits proofs of Mr. Clinton's great use- 
fulness. Under his auspices, the New York 
Historical Societ}^ was incorporated, the Orphan 
Asylum and free schools were fostered and 
encouraged. He introduced laws to prevent 
kidnapping, and the further introduction of 
slaves ; also to punish those who should treat 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 225 

slaves inhumanly. — De Witt Clintonh Life in 
Delaplaine^s Repository. 

I have been forced, after honest and serious 
consideration, to the conclusion, that God, who 
rules all the affairs of men, is now speaking to 
the American nation in thunder tones. He is 
afflicting us for the terrible sin of slavery. 

The great fear of those who have ibstered 
this rebellion, is that a true knowledge of God 
and his word would be instilled into the minds 
of the people. This is proven by their own 
arguments. Let us cite one from General Duff 
Green's favorite strain : 

*' We are of those who believe that the South 
has nothing to fear from a servile war. We do 
not believe that the abolitionists intend, nor 
could they if they would, to exci(?e the slaves 
to insurrection. The danger of this is remote. 
We believe we have most to fear from the 
organized action upon the consciences and fears 
of the slaveholders themselves ; from the insin- 
uations of their dangerous heresies into our 
schools and pulpits and our domestic circles. 
It is only by alarming the consciences of the 
weak and feeble, and diffusing among our own 
people a morbid sensibility on the question of 
slavery, that the abolitionists can accomplish 
their object. Preparatory to this, they are now 



226 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

laboring to saturate the non-slaveholding States 
with the belief that slavery is a sin against God ; 
that the national compact involves the non-slave- 
holders in that sin, and that it is their duty to 
toil and suffer that our country may be delivered 
from what they term its blackest stain, its foul- 
est reproach, its deadliest curse." — Southern Re- 
view. 

Such arguments as these blacken the souls 
of thousands, shut up the avenues of knowledge 
in the South, and push on the car of slavery 
until it crushes all liberty beneath its iron 
wheels. 

While I was thus in my old prison a second 
time, I met with a friend, Eev. William Eogers. 
During my absence he had organized a Sabbath- 
school among the prisoners. He had been for- 
tunate enough to obtain, by some means or 
other, a copy of the Old or New Testament, 
and from this precious volume he used to read 
to the captives, who listened to him in alternate 
groups. Jast about the time that Mr. Eogers 
was producing a good effect by this habit, the 
school was peremptorily discontinued by the 
rebels, who feared the dissemination of abolition 
doctrines, notwithstanding the fact that Eogers 
was a Southern man. 

While here, I made the acquaintance of Dr. 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 227 

Doke of East Tennessee, and Dr. Fish of Illi- 
nois, both of whom were busy day and night 
ministering to the physical wants and ailments 
of the prisoners. Medical stores were meagre, 
and Dr. Doke informed me that to this cause waa 
traceable one-half the deaths that occured. 

Mr. Ko^'ers and I, fallino^ into conversation 
one afternoon, struck upon the question of 
God's special providence. In this we agreed 
very well, but on that of slavery we were op- 
posed to each other. He had been all his life 
an inhabitant of the South, and though he did 
not fully justify the keeping of slaves, he did 
not so blindly and bitterly denounce those of 
an opposite opinion, as Southerners are gene- 
rally wont to do. But I still pray for God to 
bless this good divine, as he loves and venerates 
the Stars and Stripes. He is one of that class 
who, notwithstanding all the ordinances of se- 
cession, cannot give up their affection for the 
old standard. 

Soon after this, we were sent to Atlanta, 
Georgia, under guard of one lieutenant. This 
was the first privilege we had yet enjoyed, and 
we appreciated it accordingly. Along the route 
the rebels were extremely anxious to converse 
with us, but we remained decidedl}^ silent, for 
the least word, inconsiderately spoken, would 



228 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

have placed us at the mercy of a mob, and we 
well knew what result would follow that. We 
were often insulted by such expressions as 
"Yankee thieves," "nigger-stealers," &c. 

With no other incidents than these, we reached 
Atlanta in safety. Here we found a large 
number of Confederate wounded from Virginia, 
for whom large tables had been set out, spread 
with what food and luxuries could be obtained. 

As I was still dressed in the ragged Con- 
federate uniform in which I had escaped from 
prison, a lady hailed me, to know if I was a 
soldier. Of course, I answered yes, and for a 
moment hesitated about the rest of ray answer; 
but, thinking any other course might be pro- 
ductive of ill, I added that I was a United 
States soldier, and of course could not expect 
to share in a meal set out specially for Con- 
federates. With an assumption of affectation, 
she turned away, saying : 

" Ah, we do not feed Yankees !" 

But I noticed her dark eyes closely following 
me as I limped away through the crowd, and 
ere I was out of sight, she came hurrying 
through the latter, as though to speak to some 
one near me, and she whispered in my ear : 

'' I am from New York, and I will give you 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 229 

a cup of coffee. Come around, and I will slip 
it to jou, but you m.ust keep silent." 

My heart swelled with emotion as I obeyed 
this angel woman, and I know the tears dropped 
on my face, as, with husky tones, I thanked her 
for the mug of rye coffee and the nice biscuit 
she placed in my hands. 

We remained here long enough to learn that 
a captain and three Tennesseeans had been hung 
for their Union sentiments, and to learn also 
that captives fared very badly. Then we pushed 
on to Madison, where we were incarcerated in 
an old factory building, four stories high, and 
situated in the southeastern portion of the town. 
It was two o'clock, A. M., when we arrived, and 
we were immediately locked up in a room en- 
tirely destitute of a bed. But still there was 
such a contrast between it and the old jail in 
which we had been immured, that we thought 
it very fine indeed. 

We lay down till morning, and when we 
arose, we found ourselves in company with 
General Prentiss and General Crittenden, toge- 
gether with two hundred and sixteen other 
officers of various grades. Here also I met with 
my old prison companions. Lieutenants Todd, 
Stokes, Hollingsworth, and Winslow — all cler- 
gymen like myself — Lieutenant-Colonel Adams, 
20 



230 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

Majors Crockett, Chandler, McCormick and 
Studman. I soon formed an agreeable acquaint- 
ance with General Prentiss, who was taken 
prisoner on Sunday, April 6th, 1862, at Shiloh. 
It had generally been reported that the Gene- 
ral had surrendered early in the morning; 
but this was false, for I now learned that- he did 
not give up until five o'clock in the afternoon, 
thus holding at least five or six times his own 
number in check the whole of that dreadful 
day. Without doubt, history will do the gal- 
lant hero justice ; for on that bloody field he 
displayed coolness and heroism seldom equalled, 
and never excelled. 

I found General Prentiss not one of your 
half-hearted war men, who fight conditionally, 
but a whole-souled patriot, who would destroy 
the institution that is the root of the war. He 
would not see the glorious banner trailed in the 
dust to uphold a few Southern aristocrats in 
perpetuating their horrid system of human 
bondage. His feelings were consonant with 
those of John Quincy Adams, when that wise 
man addressed Congress, February 4th, 1843, 
in the following words : 

'' Three days since, Mr. Clayton, of Georgia, 
called that species of population (slaves) the 
machinery of the South. Now, that machinery 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 231 

has twenty odd representatives in this hall, not 
elected by the machinery, but by those who 
own it. And if I should go back to the histoiy 
of the Government from its foundations, it 
would be easy to prove that its decisions have 
been effected in general by less majorities than 
that. N'ay, I might go further, and insist that 
that very representation has ever been, in fact, 
the ruling power of this Government. 

" The history of the Union has afforded a 
continual proof that the representation of pro- 
perty, which they enjoy, as well in the election 
of President and Yice-President of the United 
States, as npon the floor of the House of Eep- 
resentatives, has secured to the slaveholding 
States the entire control of the national policy, 
and almost without exception, the possession of 
the highest executive office of the Union. Al- 
ways united in the purpose of regulating the 
affairs of the whole Union by the standard of 
the slaveholding interest, their disproportionate 
numbers in the electoral colleges have enabled 
them, in ten out of twelve quadrennial elections, 
to confer the Chief Magistracy upon one of their 
own citizens. Their suffrages at every election, 
without exception, have been exclusively con- 
fined to a candidate of their own caste." 

General Prentiss was kind and affable to all 



232 BEYO.N-D THE LINES; OR 

around him, and among fifteen hundred men of 
his command with whom I freely conversed, 
there was not one who did not love and respect 
him. 

Every day found me growing more and more 
hostile to the slave system ; and the actions of 
the various States against slavery often recurred 
to my mind, and always produced a pleasurable 
feeling. Pennsylvania took the lead in this 
noble race. The Act is to be found in Smith's 
Laws, Vol, I., p. 493, 1780. It was for the 
gradual abolishment of slavery, and every word 
of it should have been printed in letters of gold. 
This just Act was, for a long course of years, 
adhered to and perfected until slavery ceased in 
the State. 

In the year 1827, the following open avowal 
of the State doctrine was made preface to the 
Act: 
" To prevent certain abuses of the laws relative 

to fugitives from labor. 

'' They ought not to be tolerated in the State 
of Pennsylvania. 

'^ Above all let us never yield up the right 
of the free discussion of any evil which may 
arise in the land or any part of it ; convinced 
that the moment we do so, the bond of the 
Union is broken. For the Union, a voluntary 



A YANKEE PRISOXER LOOSE IX DIXIE. 233 

compact to continue together for certain speci- 
fied purposes, the instant one portion of it suc- 
ceeds in imposing terms and dictating conditions 
upon another not found in the contract, the re- 
lation between them changes, and that which 
was union becomes subjection." — Message to 
Pennsylvania Legislature, 1836. 

Had we obeyed these admonitions when it 
was first attempted to stop our arguments, had 
we stood up like men and never yielded our 
rights on this subject, our foes would never 
have succeeded. Oh, that the united North 
had stood up like the martyr, Elijah Lovejoy ! 
Said he : ^ 

^' I know that I have a right fully to speak and 
publish my sentiments, subject only to the laws 
of the land for the abuse of that right ; and this 
right was given to me by my Maker, and is 
solemnly guaranteed to me by the Constitution 
of the United States and also the State. What 
I wish to know of you is, whether you will 
protect me in this right, or" whether, as hereto- 
fore, I am to be subjected to personal indignity 
and outrage." 

Was this noble man protected ? No ! He 
fell into the arms of his brother one day, shot 
down on the threshold of his own house, by the 
bullet of a cowardly and fanatical assassin. 
-20 



234 BEYOND THE LINES ; OR 

General Crittenden, with whom I also become 
acquainted here, was a slaveholder, yet he did 
not pretend to endorse the system. Another 
gentleman, Lieutenant-Colonel Pratt, of Mis- 
souri, born and bred in North Carolina, was 
strongly anti-slavery in his views. 

Henry Clay, that peerless statesman, made the 
following remarks in a speech before a meeting 
of the Colonization Society : 

" As a mere laborer, the slave feels that he 
toils for his master, and not for himself; that 
the laws do not recognize his capacity to ac- 
quire and hold property, which depends alto- 
gether upon the pleasure of his proprietor ; and 
that all the fruits of his exertion are reaped by 
others. He knows that whether sick or well, 
in times of scarcity or abundance, his master is 
bound to provide for him by the all-powerful 
influence of self-interest. He is generally, there- 
fore, indifferent to the adverse or prosperous 
fortunes of his master, being contented if he 
can escape his displeasure or chastisement by a 
careless and slovenly performance of his duties. 

" That labor is best in which the laborer 
knows that he will receive the profits of his in- 
dustry, and where his employment depends 
upon his diligence, and his reward upon his 
assiduity. He then has every motive to excite 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 235 

him to exertion, and animate liim to persever- 
ance. He knows that if he is treated badly, 
he can exchange his employer. With the pro- 
ceeds of his toil to his own hands, he distributes 
it as his pleasure indicates. In a word, he is a 
free agent, with rights, privileges, and sensibili- 
ties. Wherever the option exists to employ, at 
an equal hire, free or slave labor, the former 
will always have the preference. It is more 
capable, more diligent, more faithful, and in 
every respect more worthy of confidence." 

Among the prisoners with whom I was in 
company, there were ninety-six incarcerated for 
political oftences; that means for conscience' 
sake. They were mostly from East Tennessee, 
and they all, with one exception, believed 
slavery to be the cause of the war. This they 
often remarked to me, and invariably added 
that the war would never cease until slavery 
was destroyed. These opinions were expressed 
before we heard of the President's proclamation. 

" Why, sir," remarked I, to a Tennesseean of 
wealth and influence, " we are told by men in 
oar country, that if you in the South thought 
this, you would be a united opposition at once." 

"Sir," was the answer, "there are some in 
the South, now Union men, whom this notion 
might affect; but the truth is, that you can 



236 BEYOXD THE LINES ; OR 

never restore tlie Union until you emancipate 
the slaves. For tlieir masters can use them, 
both small and great, old and young, as effi- 
ciently as you can white men. They make them 
hoe corn and cotton to feed and clothe soldiers 
in the field ; and here again the females are as 
useful as the males. If I could see some move 
made at this system of slavery, I would have 
some hope. I am myself the owner of ten or 
twelve slaves, and I would willingly give them 
all up to see the desired result brought about. 
Emancipation, sir, is the only hope that the 
Union men have of a restoration. While you 
return the slaves to their masters as soon as you 
take them, there is no hope. You might as 
well, when you take a rebel soldier prisoner, 
send him immediately back to his own lines 
without parole." 

My spirits were often depressed, and on one 
of these occasions I committed all my papers 
to the care of Captain Stedman, with whom I 
had formed a friendship in prison, requesting 
him that, in case I succumbed to my sufferings, 
he would endeavor to forward them to my wife. 

During the daytime, we were permitted the 
liberty of the prison yard. One day, while 
walking about, I noticed a cellar, to which 
entrance was had from the vard. Into this 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 237 

dark cellar I made my way, and prayed to God 
to remember me in my sore tribulation. Once, 
when I was making my exit from this retreat 
in company with a comrade or two who had 
joined me, I was seen by Captain Stedman, who 
on learninoc what we did there, beo^o^ed us to 
pray for him. The next night we prayed in 
our apartment before retiring. This awakened 
some surprise among the rest of our comrades, 
some of whom were swearing and others play- 
ing cards. The night following, we held a 
regular prayer-meeting in our cellar, and God 
blessed us, and made us exceedingly happy. 
Each evening thereafter found us holding our 
prayer-meetings, and each evening saw several 
recruits added to our number. It had been 
agreed that there was to be no noise, fearing, 
as we did, that in case there was, we would be 
discovered by the guards, and a stop put to our 
proceedings. The rule was faithfully observed 
until one night, Captain Stedman, receiving a 
baptism from on high, could not restrain his 
happiness, but shouted, " Glory to God in the 
highest," and the shout was taken up by the 
rest. 

Here, we thought, was an end of our meetings, 
for the guards heard us. But we were agreeably 
mistaken. 



238 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 



CHAPTEE XYIII. 

The Slave's Ruse — The Richmond Enquirer — President's 
Proclamation — A Negro Prayer — A *'Big Bug" — A Casi- 
bianca — Death of Mr. Eckles — Thoughts and Plans of 
Escape — Lieutenant Pittenger. 

The next day after this occurrence, as I was 
walking in the yard, a negro, who worked in 
the prisofi, slyly pulled me as I was passing him, 
and exclaimed in an under-tone : 

" All us darkies gwine to be free, yah ! yah !" 

" What ?" asked I, taking care to avoid being 
seen by the guards. 

" "Why, all us nigs gwine to be free, yah ! 
yah ! gin us yer coat, massa I" 

I fully understood this coat business, as the 
reader must be aware from an explanation pre- 
viously given, but, as I had no coat myself, I 
went to Captain McCormick, my messmate, and 
got his. It very fortunately had. a long rip in 
the right sleeve. 

" Here, nigger," cried I, in loud tones, "■ can't 
you get this coat mended ?" 

" Mended !" exclaimed the intelligent fellow, 
in assumed tones of wrath, intended for the 



A YANKEE PRISONER I OOSE IN DIXIE. 239 

guards. " I wish dar avus no Yankees ! dere 
more bodder den dar wuff! good deal!" 

" Go get it mended for him, you black 
skunk !" exclaimed one of the guard, '' and 
make him pay well for't." 

" Dat's jes what dis yere nigger'll do, I 
golly!" 

The coat was taken roughly away by the 
negro, and returned the next morning, with the 
rip mended, and a copy of the Richmond En- 
ijuirer, containing the President's Emancijoation 
Proclamation, art/ally concealed in the lining! 
The paragraph was carefully marked all around, 
and its perusal gave me the utmost delight. I 
dared not tell even my most intimate friends 
how I got this paper, for there were spies 
among us to report us. 

I felt restive under the curb that kept my 
tongue still, but the thought rose to comfort me, 
that, though they bound me in the chains of 
a slave, the day would come when, with the poet, 
I could sing : • 

" Oh, Liberty, thou Goddess heavenly bright, 
Profuse of bliss, and pregnant with delight. 
Eternal pleasures in thy presence reign, 
And smiling Plenty leads thy -wanton train. 
Eased of her load, Subjection grows more light, 
And Poverty looks cheerful in thy sight. 



240 BEYOND THE LINES; OK 

Thou mak'st the gloomy face of Nature gay, 
Giv'st beauty to the sun, and pleasure to the day. 
***** -x- -x- 

Wrenched the red scourge from proud oppressors' hands, 

And broke, curs'd slavery, thy iron bands. 

E'en now, e'en now, on yonder western shores, 

Weeps pale Despair, and writhing Anguish roars. 

E'en now, in Afric's groves, with hideous yell, 

Fierce slavery stalks, and slips the dogs of Hell ! 

From vale to vale the gathering cries rebound, 

And sable nations tremble at the sound. 

Who right the injured, and reward the brave. 

Stretch your strong arms, for ye have power to save ! 

Throned in the vaulted heart, his dread resort. 

Inexorable Conscience holds his court. 

With still, small voice, the plots of guilt alarms. 

Bares his masked brow, his lifted hand disarms ; 

But wrapped in night, witli terrors all his own. 

He speaks in thunders when the deed is done ; 

Hear him, ye Senates, hear this truth sublime, — 

He who allows oppression shares the crime." 

That night our prayer-meeting — which was 
no longer secret — was one of the happiest we 
ever enjoyed. I found that, like myself, all 
had heard of the proclamation, and we all reve- 
rently thanked God for it. Next to me was an 
old negro who had been taken prisoner in East 
Tennessee. He had originally been freed by 
his master, a wealthy Georgian planter. When 
this son of Africa prayed, he let himself out in 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 241 

all the power and exuberance of his strong but 
uneducated mind. 

" 0, good Lord !" cried he, " don't let off de 
steam, but put on more steam, O, good Lord ! 
and don't put on de brakes ; but run her right 
up to de fust of January ! And den 0, good, 
blessed Lord, my wife'll be free ! Tank God ! 
glory ! Amen ! God send down de power ! 
Amen, and amen !" 

As this earnest freedman ceased prayer, I 
thought of my own white countrymen who 
were fighting to keep the slave enchained : 

'* And we are free — but is there not 
One blot upon our name ? 
Is our proud record written fair 
Upon the scroll of fame ? 

** Our banner floateth by the shore, 
Our flag upon the sea ; 
But when the fettered slave is loosed, 
We shall be truly free." 

That night I shall never forget, for we took 
our prayer-meeting up to the second floor. We 
had gained in strength, and God had shed his 
blessing on our efforts, so that even the most 
profane man in our midst. Captain Crawford, 
was affected. Said he to me one day : 

"• After such demonstrations as I have wit- 
nessed in your prayer- meetings, all the devils 
21 ' 



242 BEYOND THE LINES ; OR 

in hell could not make me believe there was no 
reality in religion." 

As the rebel authorities were now arresting 
and imprisoning every man who refused to 
bear arms for the Confederacy, we had additions 
made to our numbers every morning. On one 
occasion, among a crowd that were brought in, 
was a very large man. He was five feet eight 
inches high, and weighed three hundred and 
eighty pounds. He was a man of wealth and 
influence, and after having had innumerable 
servants to wait upon him, it came rather hard 
on him to be obliged to get his own place ready 
to sleep in. I say ^j/ace, for our quarters were 
entirely innocent of a bed, and if we took 
turns sleeping on a blanket, we considered our- 
selves lucky. In the morning he spent some 
time in rising, for it needed his utmost efforts 
to get his vast body to an upright position. 
His exertions ruffled his temper exceedingly, 
and as the perspiration poured down his face, 
he muttered to himself over and over again : 

^' Now, old Henry, you've got yourself in a 

h — 1 of a fix, aint you, you d d old foolT' 

Notwithstanding, this old man was very 
gentlemanly in his deportment. 

Among a batch that had lately arrived, was a 
man whom the rebels were endeavoring to force 



A YANKEE FKISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 243 

to take the oath of allegiance to the Southern 
Confederacy. But his wife, who had been coii- 
fmed just after his arrest, fearing that his re- 
gard for her condition might induce him to 
submit to what was demanded, sent her son, 
who was only eight years old, to tell his father 
nt)t to take the oath. 

This brave little fellow came nearly one 
hundred miles on his mission, and, when he ar- 
rived, the guards refused to admit him. Un- 
daunted, however, by the rebuffj the young hero 
got close to the picket-fence, and shouted with 
all his might : 

'' Pa ! pa 1 don't you swear ! Oh, pa, don't 
you swear 1 We can get along ; I got the lot 
ploughed to put in the wheat !" 

I wished at the time that this scene could be 
witnessed by the whole North. I feel convinced 
that in that case no one would raise a cry of 
indignation at the arrest of traitors who cry for 
peace, and who thus aid the South in oppressing 
the really true Union men in that region. 

A gentleman by the name of Shaw, was the 
object of Confederate malice, and on no rational 
grounds whatever. Hoping to secure a place of 
refuge for his wife and helpless children, he 
liad, some ten months previous, sought to leave 
his native State. Virginia, as he knew that the 



244 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

most terrible battles of the war must take place 
tliere. On the road lie was met and seized by 
a band of ruffians, who, without the slightest 
explanation, tore him from the presence of his 
family, and hurried him away to jail, for disloy- 
alty to the South. The last he had seen of his 
wife and four little ones was when they stood 
weeping and wringing their hands on the road- 
side, as his ruthless captors carried him from 
their sight. He had never heard tale nor tidings 
of them since, and what their fate had been he 
knew not. His case was only one of a thou- 
sand others. 

" See the dire victim, torn from social life, 
The shrieking babe, the agonizing wife. 
See ! wretch forlorn is dragged bv hostile hands 
To distant tyrants, sold on distant lands ; 
Transmitted miseries and successive chains, 
The soul-sad heritage, her child obtains. 
E'en this last wretched boon their foes deny, 
To live together, or together die I 
By felon hands, by one relentless stroke, 
See the fond links of feeling Nature broke ! 
The fibres twisting round a parent's heart. 
Torn from their grasp, and bleeding as they part !" 

This unfortunate man gave me instances of 
where he had seen his neighbors hung, some 
until not quite dead, and then taken down to 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 245 

take the oath of allegiance. In case they re- ' 
fused, thej were instantly strung up again. 

We were so much encouraged in holding our 
prayer-meetings, that we finally were bold 
enough to request the privilege of having 
divine service every Sabbath. This was granted, 
much to our surprise, and we had the most 
happy times imaginable. Oh, it was glorious 
for the soul to bask in that heavenly sunlight 
which God thus shed upon us in our dreary 
prison. 

About this time, I became acquainted with 
Simeon B. Eckels. He was very sick, and re- 
quested me often to pray for him. Our friend- 
ship was as cordial as it was short, for his sick- 
ness was unto death. The God who sent his 
angel to free his apostle Peter, took our sick 
brother by the hand, and led him from out the 
noisome prison to the mansions above, where 
care comes not, and where sickness is not 
known. He died at half past ten o'clock, P. M., 
on August 22, 1862. For several days prior to 
his death, I was constantly by him, and was 
much gratified with the manifestations he gave 
of preparation for the future. Brother Eckels 
gave me the name of the church in Iowa to 
which he belonged, also the names of his mo- 
ther and sister, who lived in Ohio. He requested 
21^ 



246 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

me to visit the latter. His thoughts were cen- 
tred solely upon heaven and his mother, and m 
his moments of revival he would often repeat 
the lines: 

' * My mother, at thy holy name, 

Within my bosom is a gush 
Of feeling, which no time can tame, 
And which, for worlds of fame, 

I would not, could not crush." 

Brother Eckels's end was indeed one of peace 
and bright serenity. At his request I preached 
his funeral sermon the day succeeding his death, 
from the text, " They that sleep in Jesus will 
God bring with him." 

At the hour appointed for the funeral of the 
deceased, a negro drove up with a dirty dray, 
on which we supposed they intended to throw 
the corpse, and cart it away like some animal's 
carcass. At this, the Colonel of his regiment, 
Colonel Shaw, earnestly requested that we 
might be allowed to bear the body, and thus 
prevent the insult offered to the dead. This 
request had the effect of causing the officers to 
send for a light wagon, and in this was our 
sleeping brother and comrade soldier carried to 
his long home, followed by myself and a com- 
panion or two. Gentle be his slumbers beneath 
the sods of Georgia's soil ! 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 247 

Unfortunate! J, among some other papers, I 
lost that on which I, had taken the address of 
Mr. Eckels's mother, and have, therefore, as yet, 
been unable to fulfil my promise to visit her. 
Nothing would give me more pleasure than to 
see this dear old lady, and tell her what a glori- 
ous death-bed was that of her son. Since my 
return home, I have frequently heard a sweet 
song, the words of which picture before me the 
last hours of Mr. Eckles. How touchingly ap- 
propriate to the dying breath of this Christian 
hero, were the lines : 

"Soon witli angels I'll be marching, 
With bright laurels on my brow — 
For my country I have fallen, 
Who will care for mother now?" 

Hitherto our spirits had been borne up by 
the hopes of a speedy exchange; but as day 
followed day, this fond hope faded, and we 
began seriously to think of making our escape. 
A general rise of the prisoners was proposed, 
which would no doubt have been successful, 
with perhaps the loss of five or ten of our 
number. This I did not personally approve of, 
as I was unable to travel ; but still I stated to 
my fellow captives, that I would put no hin- 
drance in their way if they should decide upon 
such a course. A sufficient number not being 



248 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

obtained to give this plan any chance of success, 
it was finally abandoned for some others that 
promised more success. 

I had ascertained the distance to the river, 
and also, that if we could reach the latter, we 
could run down it in a skiff. I immediately 
selected a comrade, broke the intelligence to 
him, and obtained his consent to make a dash 
for liberty. We made known our intention to 
a third one, and he, too, consented to join in 
the perilous undertaking. The plan of opera- 
tions was this : 

On the first rainy night, we were to go to 
some Murfreesboro' prisoners, who had blank- 
ets, and obtain some of the latter under 
the pretense of washing them. We then in- 
tended to make our way to the fence, and with 
our knives, cut around the heads of the nails, 
so that the boards could be easily pulled off. 
Then filling the places we had cut with sand, 
we intended to hang the blankets over the fence 
so as to hide our work. At some subsequent 
time, when the guards drove us up to our 
room, we were going to the fence under pre- 
tense of getting our blankets, and intended to 
remain there till all was quiet. Then, tearing 
off several boards, we were to make an effort 
to gain our freedom. 



A YANKEE PEISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 249 

All worked well until the night of our final 
attempt, and then, unfortunately, one of our 
companions was taken ill. This was the first 
disappointment. The next wet night that came, 
we were all well, and started ; but, just as wo 
were about to accomplish our purpose. General 
Prentiss, with several others, made a like at- 
tempt, unknown however, to us. Of course, an 
alarm was immediately raised, and the guards 
were on the qui vive. The General's party, 
headed by him, dashed back, and hid themselves 
in the cellar where we used to hold our prayer- 
meetings, while we reached our own room in 
safety. A Tennesseean tore up a plank from our 
floor^ and succeeded in getting one. Lieutenant 
Ward, up out of the cellar beneath ; but, ere 
another could be assisted thus, the guards had 
captured the fugitives, and marched them out 
into the yard. A short time afterward, they 
were brought back into the room in which we 
were, amid the jokes and laughs of the rest of 
the prisoners at their non-success. 

A few hours after daylight, a guard of fifteen 
or twenty men marched in and took General 
Prentiss, Captain Gaddus, Major "Ward, and 
several others into custody. Where they took 
til em we did not know; but, a few days sub- 
sequently, T heard through Dolph, the black 



250 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

boy, tliat they were put into a common jail, and 
chained to the floor. From the description he 
gave of it, their condition must indeed have 
been horrible. 

Think of that, all you who sympathize with 
tiaitors, and equivocate, if you can, or dare, 
upon such acts as these I You may say you do 
not believe such things were done. Let me 
then refer you to a case, sworn to by one of the 
sufferers, upon his return home, now Lieutenant 
William Pittenger, as noble a young man as 
ever breathed, and formerly associate of Rev. 
Alexander Clark, in the publication of '' Clark\s 
School Visitor y It is from an official report, 
given before Judge Holt, by order of the Secre- 
tary of War : 

''An order came for the execution of our 
seven comrades who had been tried. It was at 
that time entirely unexpected to us, although at 
first it would not have been. Sentence of death 
was read to them, and they were immediately 
tied, vf ithout any time for preparation being al- 
lowed them. They were told to bid us farewell, 
and be quick about it. They were then taken 
out of the prison, and Ave could see them from a 
window, seated in a wagon, and escorted by 
cavalry. In the course of an hour or so, tiie 
cavalrv returned without them. That evenin;^. 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 251 

Captain FarackerS; the provost marslial, called 
upon us. We asked him how our companions 
had met their fete. He told us, "like brave 
men." The next day, we conversed with the 
guards who were guarding us, with one in par- 
ticular, who described the scenes of the execu- 
tion. He tokl us of a speech of one of these 
men, named Wilson, from my regiment, on the 
scaffold. He told us, also, that two of the 
heaviest men had broken the ropes by which 
they were suspended, and fell to the ground. 
They afterwards revived, and asked for a drink 
of water ; which being given to them, they re- 
quested an hour to prepare for death, and pray 
before they were again hung up. Their re- 
quest was refused, and, as soon as the ropes 
could be re-aclJQsted, they were compelled to 
rc-ascend the scaffold. The guard told me that 
Mr. Wilson had spoken very calmly ; had told 
them they were all in the wrong ; that thoy 
would yet see the time when the old Union 
would be restored, and the flag of our country 
would wave over all that region." 



252 



CHAPTEK XIX. 

Just Judgment — General Prentiss in Close Confinement — 
Northern Peace Men — Bear Storj — In the Hospital — 
Old Aunt Susie — Sold Children — Without Bread, and 
Satisfied — What our Fathers thought — An Untram- 
meled Pulpit — Claj-eaters — Commissioners to Wash- 
ington—Homeward Bound — An Irate Southron — My 
Yellow Angel — Our Journey — An Accident — Jetf. Davis' 
Coffin — Don't Know Myself — Safe at Home — Conclusion. 

Is it not passing strange that enlightened 
Americans can be thus so barbarous? It is 
related of a certain English judge, that a crimi- 
nal was brought before him, whom, for certain 
offences, he sentenced to seven years transpor- 
tation. The prisoner's friends immediately sent 
a petition to the judge, stating that he was a 
well-informed man, and if he had an opportu- 
nity, might yet be a useful member of society. 
The judge forthwith sent for the criminal, and 
thus addressed him : 

''I understand, sir, that you are a man of 
knowledge, and well-informed, and might be a 
useful member to society. But see what you 
have done in the face of all your knowledge. 



A YANKEE PPwISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 253 

Now, sir, I had intended to give you only seven 
years ; but because you know better, I shall 
double your term and give you fourteen years 
traiisportation^ with hard labor ^ That was a just 
judge, and before him should the South be tried 
for the deeds she has committed during this 
war. 

What renders the offence against the noble 
General Prentiss so much more aggravating, is 
the fact, that he was thus treated after he had 
been regularly exchanged. The man for whom 
he was exchanged, General Price, had been set 
at liberty, and returned to his family. 

What apology the Southerners could offer in 
this case I know not ; but I suppose they might 
treat the matter in the same light as they do 
the wrongs inflicted upon the four millions of 
human beings whom they hold in bondage. 
Their reply is, when spoken to of their cruelties 
to their slaves : 

" Oh, they're only niggers !" 

So, in regard to General Prentiss, they might 
say; 

"• Oh, he's only a Yankee abolitionist !" 

And shame mantles my brow as I say that 

there is a class of men in the North, whom this 

answer would not only satisfy, but actually 

delight. Thank God that this class is a harm • 

22 



254 

less minority ! "What a sorry figure they will 
cut after tlie war is over, and the rebels thrashed 
back into the Union ! They remind me of an 
anecdote I once heard, of a man named John 
Williams. John was a poor, lazy coward him- 
self, while his wife was just the reverse. Moving 
to a mountainous region in Virginia, they got a 
little cabin and lot of ground. One day Lucy, 
his wife, was working in the garden, while John 
was nursing the baby. Suddenly an old, hun- 
gry bear was seen coming down the mountain 
side, directly toward them. John instantly 
dropped the child, ran to the cabin, climbed up 
the ladder into the loft, and pulled the ladder 
lip after him, thus leaving the mother and baby 
to do the best they could. Lucy, seeing her 
chance of escape thus cut off, did not wait to 
scold her cowardly husband, but seizing an ax, 
went out to meet the bear. As soon as old 
Bruin came within reach, the courageous mother 
struck hull on the head again and again. 

John, as he witnessed this from the loft-win- 
dow, cried out : 

" Quit that, you Lucy ; you'll make him 
madder and madder !" 

Lucy paid no attention to John, but continued 
chopping away at the bear until she killed him. 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 255 

As the beast fell dead, John breathed somewhat 
more freely, and called out : 

" Lucy, is he dead ?" 

'' Yes." 

" Are you sure he's dead, Lucy ?" 

" Yes ! of course he is." 

John came down, and going to where tho 
dead bear lay, he looked first at it, and then at 
his wife, ready, however, to start ofi' on a run 
should the brute give any signs of life. After 
thus contemplating matters, he gave his collar 
a jerk, and exclaimed, proudly : 

" Hurrah, Lucy, we^ve killed a big bear ! 
blamed if we ain't !" 

So it is with the peace-men of to-day. They 
cry now loudly for peace, and whine about the 
unconstitutional arrest of a few tories. And 
when it is over, and freedom triumphs, their 
coward lips will boast of victories won over the 
legions of secession. Such are the Yallandig- 
ham traitors. 

General Prentiss remained in close confinement 
until October 6th, and during the time he had 
been absent from our party. I had been taken 
with a severe illness, which obtained for me ad- 
mission to a rear room of the prison, which was 
dignified by the name of a hospital. Here I 
enjoyed the privilege of drawing m}' allowance 



256 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

of corn-meal from the commissary, and taking 
it, or sending it, under guard, out to some one 
in the town, to have it cooked. I got a slave, 
called Aunt Susie, belonging to a widow, to 
attend to mine, and she did it well. I was 
forbidden to speak to her, however. 

One da}^, Lieutenant Welsh came in with the 
report that Aunt Susie was having great trouble. 
I suspected the reason, but kept silent. The 
next day, feeling well enough, I obtained per- 
mission to take my own meal out to get it 
cooked. As it happened, two black boys were 
on guard, and one of these only accompanied me. 
He knew all about Aunt Susie's sorrow, and, as 
he walked along, he said : 

'' Don't b'lieve Aunt Susie 'ill be able to do 
your cookin', sah." 

"Why?" asked I. 

" Kase she's in heaps o' trouble, sah. You 
see, de sheriff sold her little boy an' gal t'oder 
day, an' she's bin cryin' eber since, as though 
her heart 'ud break." 

'' Do you think that sale was right ?" said I. 

" Well, now, I guess I doesn't, sah !" was the 
quick reply. 

" Well, then, why are you in the army that 
supports such doings?" 

" Ah, sah, dey makes me shoulder my gun, 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 257 

an' dey makes me fire, sah ; but dey can't make 
me shoot low, so as to hit anybody. When T 
fire, sah, I shoots ober, d'ye understand, sah ? 
I fires, but nobody gits hurt wid my ball, sah !" 

'' Well, why is it," continued I, " that your 
masters mix you up with white soldiers? Why 
don't they put all you blacks into regiments 
by yourselves ?" 

" Yah ! yah ! sah," said the slave, '^ dey knows 
'nufF better dan dat. Dey knows we'd fight 
t'odder way, if we got togedder. Yes, sah !" 

By this time we reached Aunt Susie's cabin, 
where I found the poor creature sitting on a 
stool, weeping bitterly. On her lap lay a little 
boy two years oW, while by her knee stood 
another of four years. 

When I entered the cabin, she sprang to her 
feet in an excited manner ; but when she saw 
myself and guard, she became calmer. 

*' What is the matter. Aunt Susie ?" I asked. 

'' Oh, sah," she replied, amidst tears and sobs, 
*' I darsen't tell you, sah, for it'll break my poor 
old heart." 

^'Oh, yes, come now, Susie, tell me. If I 
cannot help you, I can at least feel sorry for 
you." 

"Oh, sah, but you are kind to feel sorry for 
a poor old slave like me. Dey're sold my two 
22* 



258 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

dear little children, and dey'll take 'em away 
to-morrow, and I knows I'll neber see 'em no 
more 'till I sees 'em up dar, sah — up dar, sah, 
whar none of ns '11 be sold any more." 

As Aunt Susie made this reply, she turned 
her face heavenward, and pointed up with her 
finger. In her agonized countenance, wet as it 
was with her sorrowful tears, I read an appeal for 
the freedom of the slave, stronger and more 
touching than all the volumes and speeches 
that have ever been written or made upon the 
subject. 

I could not stand it any longer, and bidding 
the poor old slave good-bye, I turned away 
without my bread, for my heart was full. I no 
longer wondered at the strength of the lan- 
guage used by Ireland's great orator, Daniel 
O'Connell, when he said : 

^'The Americans, in their conduct towards 
the slaves, are traitors to the cause of human 
liberty, foul detractors of the democratic prin- 
ciples which I have cherished throughout my 
political life. They are blasphemers of that 
great and sacred name which they pretend to 
honor. For in their solemn league and cove- 
nant, the Declaration of Independence, they 
declare that all men have certain 'inalienable 
rights.' These they defined to be life, liberty, 



A YAKKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 259 

and the pursuit of happiness. To maintain 
these, they pledged themselves with all the 
solemnity of an oath in the presence of Al- 
mighty God. The aid which they invoked 
from heaven was awarded to them ; but they 
have violated their awfully solemn compact 
with the Deity, and set at naught every princi- 
ple which they profess to hold sacred, by keep- 
ing two and a half millions of their fellow-men 
in bondage. In reprobation of that disgraceful 
conduct, my humble voice is heard across the 
waves of the wide Atlantic. Like the thunder- 
storm in its strength, it careers against the breeze 
armed with the lightning of Christian truth. 
And let them seek to repress it as they may ; 
let them murder and assassinate in the true 
spirit of Lynch law ; the storm will rave louder 
and louder around them till the claims of justice 
become too strong to be withstood, and the 
black man will stand up too big for his chains. 
I hope what I am about to say is not a profana- 
tion, but it seems as if the curse of the Al- 
mighty has already overtaken them. For the 
first time in their political history, disgraceful 
tumults and anarchy have been witnessed in 
their cities. Blood has been shed without the 
sanction of the law, and even Sir Kobert Peel 
has been enabled to taunt Americans with gross 



260 BEYOND THE LINES ; OR 

inconsistency and lawless proceedings. I differ' 
with Sir Eobert Peel on many points. On one 
point, however, I fully agree with him. Let 
the proud Americans learn that all parties in 
this country unite in condemnation of their pre- 
sent conduct, -and let them also learn that the 
worst of all aristocracies is that which prevails 
in America, an aristocracy which has been aptly 
denominated that of the human skin. The most 
insufferable pride is that shown by such an aris- 
tocracy. I will continue to hurl these taunts 
across the Atlantic. They will ascend the Mis- 
sissippi, they will descend the Missouri, and be 
heard along the banks of the Ohio and Monon- 
gahela, till the black man leaps delightedly to 
express his gratitude to those who have effected 
his emancipation. And oh ! but perhaps it is my 
pride that dictates this hope, that some black 
O'Connell may rise among his fellow- slaves, who 
will cry ' agitate ! agitate ! agitate !' till the two 
millions and a half of his fellow-sufferers learn 
their strength, learn that they are two millions 
aud a half! If there is one thing more than 
another which can excite my hatred, it is the 
laws which the Americans have framed to pre- 
vent the instruction of their slaves. To teach 
a slave to read is made a capital offence ! 
Shame ! To be seen in the company of a slave 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 261 

who can write, is visited with imprisonment ! 
Shame ! And to teach the slave the princi- 
ples of freedom is punishable with death ! It 
may be asked, Are these human laws ? Are they 
not made by the wolves of the forest ? No, but 
they are made by a congregation of two-legged 
Avolves, American wolves, monsters in human 
shape, who boast of their liberty and of their 
humanity, while they carry the hearts of tigers 
within them. With regard to the attacks that 
have been made upon my countrymen by such 
men, I rejoice at them. They prove to me that 
the sufferings to which they have been subjected 
in the land of their birth have not been lost 
upon them ; but that their kindly affections 
have been nurtured into strength, and that they 
have ranged themselves on the side of the op- 
pressed slave." 

Would to heaven that ministers of religion, 
as well as statesmen, would shake off their lip- 
fetters, and throughout the whole nation pro- 
claim, as with one voice, the liberty of Gospel 
love I As long as the heralds of salvation are 
time-servers and caste-courters, there will be 
Pharisaical hatred to God's poor. The reader 
will peruse an extract here from a sermon on 
Christian Courage, by Rev. Alexander Clark, 
delivered in the mid-summer of 1862, some 



262 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

weeks before the announcement of the Emanci- 
pation Proclamation. The words are timely 
and truthful now as then : 

^' To the Christian citizen, who, in this nation, 
is greater than a ruler in any other, I would 
say a word to-day. These are times of sorrow. 
Our nation is terribly lacerated, and bleeding at 
every pore. Horrid civil war hangs her black 
pall over our summer skies. The clouds have 
hovered long, and still they gather. All the 
light we have are the vivid lightnings that 
flash across our battle-fields, though every flash 
reveals a flying foe, records the victory, and 
thrills it in electric velocity throughout our 
loyal land. Then an impenetrable darkness pre- 
vails. -We cannot yet see the ' cloud with the 
silver lining.' "We cannot hail the day of 
universal peace. The thick shadows obscure 
our vision. The groans we hear, and the tears 
we see, hinder our exulting. Oh, the tears of 
this war — what a river of them, enough, with 
the added tears of the suffering slaves for lo ! 
these many years, to float the cruel ship that 
first brought bondmen to our shores ! The 
graves already filled, and others filling every 
day, and every where, almost crush our very 
hopes. In the midst of this darkness and storm, ' 
this carnage and blood, we would fear for the 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 263 

result, were it not for the assurance that we feel 
to nerve us right from the God of nations. 
Be not afraid, only helieve. 

" And what shall we believe ? What shall be 
our faith ? This — no more, and no less — that 
this nation must first be pure, then peaceable. 
Amen. Lord, help thou our unbelief! Purify 
us from all sin ! Take away from us all false 
trust, and all man-glorying ! The Lord help us 
to accept universal liberty for this nation — 
boldly, immediately, unconditionally, that the 
sunlight of God's favor may shine upon us once 
more and for ever 1 May our rulers and generals, 
and all Christians, accept the life-thought of 
freedom to all men as the talisman of triumph 
henceforth ! And may none in authority, may 
none in the churches or closets, be unwilling to 
trust in the arm of the Lord. Oh, that the 
entire people might cease trembling, and believe, 
and be bold for the right ! 

" The same Power that spoke life to the daugh- 
ter of Jairus, is able to restore our lost pros- 
perity — is able to return to us our national 
renown. And He will, if we only believe. 
Our Eepublic is young in years, as a child 
among the nations, but it will yet be raised to 
its second life, which shall be more glorious 
than the first. The noise of party politicians 



2d4 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

and mock mourners sliall be hushed as inso- 
lence, and the professional fault-finders who 
ridicule the workings of Providence, shall be 
turned out ; and independent of their viperous 
hisses over a dead Kepublic, it even already 
pleaseth Almighty God to awake our slumber- 
ing people to the liberty of truth. His name, 
and not a paltry, pitiful partyh, shall have the 
glory for a nation redeemed, and a weary, toil- 
worn race emancipated ! 

* He lias sounded forth th^ trumpet that shall never call 
retreat ; 
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment 

seat ; 
Oh, be swift my soul, to answer Him ! be jubilant, my 
feet! 

Our Grod is marching on.' 

'^ And even to-day, while so many are afraid 
to trust God, afraid to hope that all this com- 
motion shall end gloriously, let us believe that 
the same Power which conquered devils among 
the Gadarenes, healed most desperate maladies 
in the region of His pilgrimage, and raised the 
cold dead to life again, will give us the great 
victory. Brethren, give to the winds your 
fears ! 

" A word in view of our national truth. Bless 
God! in our prosperous North, that has been 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 265 

full and free ; and it shall be as enduring as the 
Plymouth Kock, where it first breasted the New- 
World's winter and storm. That Truth is 
Christian liberty, unalloyed and untrammeled, 
the Pilgrim fathers' treasure ; that is the citizen- 
children's inheritance, and it shall be perpetu- 
ated. The * Mayflower' weathered the storms of 
a December Atlantic. The blood she brought 
to America courses now in so many veins, and 
the spirit life at Plymouth planted, is to-day so 
thrilling all true Christian hearts, that this strife 
must end in proclamation of a Gospel to the 
poor. These we have with us always. Let the 
people — the wJiole people, have the Truth — the 
whole Truth — and nothing but the Truth. If 
this include body and conscience-liberty, he not 
afraid of that, and let the good news go forth to 
captive ones. Truth is used to storms. It has 
battled and beaten before. Itself bled on Cal- 
vary, grappled with Death, and conquered the 
monster on the marble floor of the new sepul- 
chre, and is to-day a risen Sun of Eighteous- 
ness, dawning upon the nations ! 

^' The Pilgrim fires, kindled so long ago on the 
cold New England shores, shall yet dart light 
and warmth to earth's remotest bounds. 
America must evangelize the world. But not 
yet. Not until all human fetters shall have 
28 



266 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

been melted, and all tyranny consumed at home. 
If it takes fire to purify the people and burn 
out oppression, then blow, ye winds of heaven, 
and fan the flames ! Let our nation be the 
land of slaves and sorrow no longer. Give us, 
O, thou Euler of men, a home-land of freedom 
and of Gospel light! Then our missionary 
efforts will be successful. Then the day of 
vain mockery at our own pagan idols and 
wicked worship of the world's trinity, Gold- 
power-honor, will be for ever ended. Then the 
true God shall be honored, when His human 
image is disenthralled, when all hearts and 
voices publish the good news throughout the 
land ; then shall the high hallelujah melody, 

' Sound the loud timbrel o'er Egypt's dark sea — 
Jehovah, hath triumphed — his people are free !' 

ring a joy unspeakable to the benighted sons of 
heathendom abroad. And the warbling melody, 
sweeter and richer far than the notes of a bugle- 
band, shall fill and thrill the very desert airs of 
Africa. The wild men of Ethiopia shall catch 
the sounding song, and leap as harts on the 
mouDtains. The inhabitants of the far-off" sea- 
islands shall hear the sweet gospel paean, and 
welcome a religion that sounds liberty to the 
captive. 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 267 

" What music ! The first measures of the an- 
them have been performed in plaintive preludes, 
outsighing for years, in tedious time, by the 
weary bondmen of the cotton-fields. Now comes 
the bold, loud bass, majestic as the march of the 
whirlwind, introducing the discord of rattling 
muskets, and anon the rumbling thunder-roar of 
artillery and the neighing of war-horses. And 
hark ! for an alto, the striking and flashing of 
swords, the cheers of the victors, the screams of 
the wounded, and the groans of the dying ! But 
still the sweet ringing melody sounds on high 
in octaves of glory, like the trill of a freed bird, 
and as exultant as the angels' song over the 
Bethlehem hills before the day- dawn ; soon the 
chorus-bar shall be reached and crossed, for the 
Omnipotent beats the time in downward and up- 
ward suns; then the mournful minor strains 
shall cease, the hoarse bass shall be keyed 
anew for very joy, and the heavenly soprano 
of peace, sung by angels and sainted choirs 
above, shall blend with the glad voices of a freed 
and shouting multitude in one rapturous burst 
of accord, 

* Sound tlie loud timbrel o'er Egypt's dark sea — 
Jehovah hath triuinped — his people are free !' 

Who will be afraid, since God rules ? Only 
believe^ and all will be well. 



268 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

" Eather let us rejoice aloud and praise the 
Lord ! For now a better day is dawning upon 
our own dear native land. These sweet summer 
mornings, with their blessed, balmy breezes, 
breathe and beam it. The birds warble it. The 
rain patters it. The flowers nod it. The leaves 
laugh it. The sun is rising that shall flash it in 
one blaze of glory the rolling globe around I 
' Be not afraid — only believe.' ' Amen ; so let 
it be.' The infamous slave trade, and the 
scarcely less infamous institution of American 
slavery, Ood is crushing out of this land for ever- — 
thanks be to His name ! Soon our poor shall 
have the gospel preached to them. Soon shall 
eyes that have looked so long through tears to 
a tyrant master's frown, see their prison bands 
severed in pieces, to fall in tingling music at 
their feet. Soon shall the illiterate slave be 
taught to read, in silent meditation, or aloud to 
his children, the simple story of a Saviour's 
love. Soon shall the hearts that have sickened 
at the selling of kindred flesh for gold, bound 
and beat to the welcome, * Gome, come unto me, 
all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and / 
will give you rest,' 

" The Almighty Deliverer is working now 
And, as in the days of his incarnation, there are 
men now who desire in their hearts that God 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 269 

would leave the country. They think Him un- 
able to pay for the loss of the herds. Men will 
not believe it ; but the Almighty Deliverer 
works. Glory to God ! Underneath our cause 
are the Everlasting Arms ; and side by side 
with the heroic soldier, as he walks to war, 
the Lord is marching on I Again and again let 
it ring — let Southern hills the echo sound, 

* Sound the loud timbrel o'er Egypt's dark sea — 
Jehovah hath triumphed — his people are free !' 

" Be not afraid to come out, and speak out for 
freedom. Only believe that the Lord will grant 
it. Already it comes — the victorious march of 
the Almighty ! The nation's capital He has 
freed and blessed, and foundationed on conse- 
crated ground. The very flowers must yield a 
richer fragrance there. The feathered choristers 
that hop among the elms in the yards and gar- 
dens there, so early in the morning, must strike 
higher, gladder notes of praise. Now Washing- 
ton is safe. Let the conquest circle the Repub- 
lic until the waves of the Gulf and the rippling 
Rio Grande shall lave the soil of liberty." 

Upon my return to prison I found that Aunt 
Susie's troubles had been heard of there. The 
Httle boy and girl played close by the fence 
28* 



270 

during two days, and then we lost tliem. They 
were gone to spend the rest of their lives in 
chains and slavery, unless the Almighty arm 
breaks every bond of every oppressor ! 

I am aware that those who would excuse the 
slave system, often attempt to give conclusive 
weight to their arguments by asserting that our 
forefathers were slaveholders. Let me give 
some facts to the contrary. 

One day, the wife of Samuel Adams returning 
home from a visit, informed her husband that a 
dear friend had made her a present of a female 
slave. 

" My dear," replied Mr. Adams, '' she may 
come ; but not as a slave, for a slave cannot live 
in my house. If she comes, she must be free." 

She came, and took up her free abode with the 
family of this great champion of American 
liberty, and there she continued free until her 
death. 

General Kosciusko, by his will, placed in the 
hands of Mr. Jefferson a sum exceeding twenty 
thousand dollars, to be laid out in the purchase 
of young female slaves, who were to be both 
educated and emancipated. The laws of Vir- 
ginia prevented the will of Kosciusko from being 
carried into effect — 1820. 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 271 

A tyrant power had captured nine hundred 
and twenty Sardinian slaves, of whom Gene- 
ral William Eaton thus makes mention : 

" Many have died of grief, and others linger 
out a life less tolerable than death. Alas ! 
remorse seizes my whole soul when I reflect that 
this is indeed but a copy of the very barbarity 
which my eyes have seen in my own native 
country." 

''Dissipation, as well as power," wrote the 
immortal John Kandolph, '' hardens the heart ; 
but avarice deadens it to every feeling but the 
thirst for riches. Avarice alone could have 
produced the slave trade. Avarice alone can, 
as it does, drive the infernal traffic, and the 
wretched victims, like so many post-horses, are 
whipped to death in a small coach. Ambition 
has its incentives in the pride, pomp, and circum- 
stance of glorious war; but where are the 
trophies of avarice ? The handcuffs, the mana- 
cles, and the blood-stained cowhide !" 

But to return to my narrative. One morning, 
as I stood gazing at the guards about our prison, 
I was forcibly struck with their appearance. 
They were a new set of men, who had relieved 
our old guards, the latter having been sent to 
Kichmond. They were all tall and ungainly, 
and, in speaking, always said ''har," "sar," 



272 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

"■ whar," and " dar." Their most favorite excla- 
mations were/'tarnal Jesus," and " I golly." 

As I was thus surveying these degraded 
creatures, I heard one of them say : 

" Tom, what do you always go to old San- 
ders's mill for ? Why don't you go to Mike 
Adams's mill ?" 

" Why, you tarnal fool," was the reply, 
" don't you know there's a good deal better clay 
up at old Sanders's than there is at Mike 
Adams's?" 

As we were at this time under the charge of 
one Captain Collins, who was more indulgent 
than any of our previous keepers, we were al- 
lowed to converse with the guards. I resolved 
to settle this matter of clay-eating. So I asked 
one of the fellows to whom I have just referred, 
what his comrade wanted with the clay that he 
got at the mill. 

" Why, tarnal J s," retorted the repulsive 

brute, ^' and don't you know nothin' ? He 
wanted it to eat, I golly !" 

Keader, it would be impossible to describe 
the personal appearance of these wretched clay- 
eaters, except by the remark an Ohio lady made 
upon seeing them in all their glory, in Georgia. 
Said she, *' thef/ do not look like fresh dead men, 
hut men who have been dead some time.^^ 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 273 

Of all the negro-haters in the worlds the clay- 
eater is the most bitter^ the cause of which is 
nothing more than jealousy and a degraded 
moral system. 

While in this prison, we were permitted oc- 
casionally to receive our dinners from outside ; 
but even this privilege was stopped every few 
days, so that it was always altogether uncertain. 

Commissioners having been sent to Washing- 
ton, in relation to the matter of exchanges by 
cartel, they returned, and brought with them to 
General Prentiss several hundred dollars, which 
the General divided among the of&cers. Our 
mess, consisting of three, received one dollar, 
which, of course, with prices as high as they 
were in Dixie at that time, was almost useless. 
Sometimes we complained of our bad fare, and 
asked for wheat-bread. Wheat-bread seemed 
to be a standing joke in rebeldom, or rather 
one of the institutions that were long since 
forgotten. 

" Wheat-bread indeed !" laughed our keepers, 
"why poor flour is sixty-nine dollars per 
barrel I" 

On the 7th of October, we left Madison, Geor- 
gia, as we hoped, for our homes. Arriving at 
Augusta, we remained a short time, not being 
allowed to leave the cars. During our stay, 



274 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

however, we managed to learn from the negroes 
that there were but few white men in the place. 

The loquacity of the darkies gave the guards 
much trouble; that is, those who were not 
Unionists themselves, and of the latter class 
there were many. Captain Collins, whom I 
have mentioned just before, still had us in his 
charge, of which we were very glad. 

The whites, as well as the negroes, crowded 
about our cars, and among other questions, we 
were asked : 

" Well, whar did they dun get you ? "What 
do you uns tink you uns '11 dun down here ? 
We uns have dun been waiting for you uns." 

From this place to Columbia, South Carolina, 
we were received much in the same manner by 
all the inhabitants. Thence we took the Charles- 
ton railroad to Branchville, from which place, 
starting due east, we struck the Wilmington 
road at Kingsville. At Columbia, we were 
placed for safe-keeping in the State Prison, 
while arrangements were being made in regard 
to the cartel. As it was supposed that we 
would soon be within our own lines, more 
liberty than usual was allowed us, of which I 
took advantage by requesting to be allowed to 
go about the town under guard. My wish was 
granted. 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 275 

As I was walking along, I overheard two 
men talking of a young lady and two gentle- 
men who had just been put into cells. There 
was an apple-stand near by, and I stopped, 
with the apparent intention of purchasing some 
of the shriveled fruit, but really to listen to 
the conversation going on between the men. 

''I've no doubt," said one, "that they're 
Yankees." 

" Well," said the other, '' the lady was put in 
for hiding and feeding a conscript." 

" Yes," savagely rejoined the first, " and if 
that's so, she ought to have been hung, and not 
put into prison." 

Upon returning to prison, I, in company 
with my tried friend, Captain Studman, went 
up stairs, where we both saw the lady and gen- 
tlemen in question. She had no hope whatever 
of escaping execution, and her pale, finely- 
formed face, though sorrowful, was determined 
in its expression. Her companions shared her 
imprisonment, because they had defended her, 
and to defend such an one was death or impris- 
onment. 

When the appointed time for our departure 
arrived, we were soon ready. While standing 
in the street, drawn up in a rank, there was 
near u.^ an old man, who, whenever he had an 



276 BEYOND THE LINES ; OR 

opportunity, would grossly insult us. The sun 
was broiling hot, and my temper, not being 
much cooler, I felt inclined to admonish this old 
rebel a little. But, not wishing to offend Cap- 
tain Collins, who had treated me so well, I 
refrained, and listened for some time to the 
hoary-headed coward in silence. 

A line of female negroes as long as our own, 
stood close to us watching us, and commented 
upon our appearance. While thus engaged, 
a little dog made his way through them, and 
commenced barking at, and playing with one of 
our number, a captain from Missouri. 

The captain patted the little animal, and said, 
in half-joking tones : 

'' Well, puppy, I've got one friend in South 
Carolina, anyhow." 

At this, the old man rushed up to the prison- 
er, and exclaimed : 

" What are you talking about ? Them 
things '11 hang you before you leave this 
place !" 

*' Whom do you think he's talking to, sir ?" I 
asked, in stern tones. 

''He's talking to them niggers, and he shall 
hang for it, before he leaves the place." 

Just then, one of our number said sarcas- 
tically : 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 277 

" Ah, now, my dear old gentleman, you are 
altogether mistaken. He's not talking to your 
children, but your dog !" 

This enraged him beyond measure, and he 
wanted to fight, and demolish the ^' whole crowd 
of d d Yankees at once, and on the spot." 

Captain Collins, at length, thinking that he 
had amused himself long enough, quietly took 
hold of him, and passed him over to the guards, 
who, however, were unable to appease him, 
until they jagged a sharp bayonet into that 
delicate portion of his corporeal organization, 
where, doubtless, his feelings and his brains 
were seated. 

We were soon after on our way to the capi- 
tal of North Carolina. On our journey thither, 
we stopped at Salisbury, where many a Yankee 
head was thrust out at the car-windows in hopes 
of attracting the attention of some of the kind- 
hearted negroes. My unshorn beard and strag- 
ling hair, charmed a pretty yellow maiden to 
such an extent that she drew near and said : 

" Are you a Yankee, sah ?" 

" Yes," replied I, determined to profit by the 
opportunity, '' and I'm a very hungry Yankee !" 

" God bless you, sah ! I'll go an' git you a 
possum leg dis minnit." 

With these words, she flew away, but soon 
24 



278 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

returned, bringing a good sized limb of '^ a 
possum." I must admit, even at the risk of 
angering a certain lady, that the yellow angel 
who thus relieved my hunger, did look very 
beautiful in my eyes at the time. And as 
though she read my thoughts, she asked coyly : 

" When am you uns coming here for we uns ?" 

At this moment, a surly, vigilant guard re- 
lieved me from the embarrassment which this 
question produced, and the girl, catching a 
glimpse of him, " dispersed," without even so 
much as bidding me farewell. 

From this slave girl's question, I was more 
than ever convinced that the slaves possessed 
more knowledge of their own rights, situation, 
and strength, than is generally supposed. I 
should not be surprised to see them some day 
rise in one solid phalanx, sweep their masters 
from existence, and cut their way to freedom ! 
And who could pity the latter ? No one. We 
should be compelled to say just what Mary did 
to her bashful suitor. 

One evening, as the lovers were standing on 
the verandah, Willie, after immense mental 
effort, asked his betrothed if he might kiss her. 
He had never been guilty of the offence before. 
Mary, delighted that Willie was at last becom- 
ing sensible, gave immediate approval. Willie 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 279 

accomplished the kiss, and fainted on the in- 
stant. Mary stepped back, and wishing to 
exonerate herself from any charges which 
might be brought against her, as to doing him 
injury, exclaimed loudly : 

^' You did it yourself! you did it yourself!" 
As we traveled to Mason, near the State line, 
between Virginia and North Carolina, we came 
to a stream across which was a trestle bridge. 
Upon reaching the bridge, a rebel soldier who 
had been standing on the platform of the car, 
and who was intoxicated, lost his balance and 
fell through the trestle-work, a distance of full 
thirty feet. He was seen to fall only by Captain 
Crawford and myself. He was not missed, 
however, until we had nearly reached Peters- 
burg, Yirginia, where it was discovered when 
they were about to change guards. This was 
many miles away from the bridge, and we in- 
formed Captain Collins of the accident the 
moment he came in. 

At Petersburg, we fell in with a rebel captain 
who was one of those fellows who can suit all 
crowds. He was much animated on the result 
of the Northern elections, and said that we 
would now most likely have peace. I asked 
him why. 



280 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

" Why," replied he, "look how you are voting 
over there." 

I did not say much, for nothing that could 
have been said would have done - the rebel 
captain any good, and might perhaps have 
brought harm to me. 

We were obliged to cross the city to reach 
the Richmond depot, and on our way we passed 
by a large factory building, in which were. con- 
fined a large number both of blacks and whites, 
the negroes for endeavoring to get away, and 
the whites for their Union sentiments. 

During our march to the depot, we were sur- 
rounded by a strong guard of cavalry. Oh, how 
galling it was to me think that I, a native born 
Virginian, was thus driven through the streets 
of the principal city of the Old Dominion, with- 
out a shoe on my foot, scarcely rags enough to 
satisfy decency, and soaked by a cold, heavy 
rain! 

At night, we were shut up in an old building 
that had been used for storing tobacco and mo- 
lasses. As there were a large number of prison- 
ers here, awaiting exchange, every one was 
obliged to shift for a resting-place as well as he 
could. Of course all the best spots were appro- 
priated before our arrival, and we were forced 
to take up our quarters in the back part of the 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 281 

building. A few of the blankets captured by 
the rebels at Harper's Ferry were distributed 
among us ; but I, unfortunately, did not get one. 
So, suffering much from the cold, I laid down in 
the dirt and molasses, which formed a sort of 
soft cement of an inch or two in depth. Com- 
pletely wearied out, however, I soon fell asleep, 
and dreamed of the happy home in Ohio to 
which I was going. 

The next morning I was roughly aroused by 
two men who stood on either side of me with 
barrel-staves. 

" What are you doing ?" exclaimed I, as the 
two men began prying me up from the floor. 

They did not notice my question, but like 
sailors weighing anchor, wrenched again at me, 
exclaiming : 

*' We'll fetch him clear this poke ! heave ho I 
yo ! ho I" 

I had positively stuck so fast to the floor, 
that it was only after the most strenuous exer- 
tions I succeeded in getting loose, even with the 
aid of my two rough, helpers. 

Our descriptive list did not come until ten 
o'clock ; but when it did, we were not long in 
signing it, after which we were taken to Aiken's 
Landing, vsome fourteen miles southeast of 
Eichmond. Though a cold rain was still falling 
24^ 



282 BEYOND THE LINES ; OB 

at intervals, I did not complain, for I was going 
home, — thank God I home ! 

Oh, how overflowing was my heart with joy 
at the prospect ! Every drop of rain that pat- 
tered on my shivering form, fell upon me like 
the summer shower falls upon the parched and 
thirsty grass. I did not complain that I had to 
march the whole fourteen miles through the 
cold, mud, and snow, in my bare feet, for I 
knew that this was my last hardship. 

Our guard were not at all rigorous in our 
marching, and therefore, I often had an oppor- 
tunity to converse with the teamsters. One of 
them remarked to me : 

"Did you know dere wuz a coffin laid on 
Massa Jeff Davis's door step t'odder night ?" 

''Ko," answered I; ^'what do you think that 
was done for ?" 

" I dunno, I 'spect some ob de Union men 
done it to let him know dc}^ would kill him if 
he didn't mind. He's had his house guarded 
ebber since wid two hundred men." 

" Well, uncle, what do you black folks think 
about this war ?" 

" Why, God bless you, sah ! we been looking 
for Massa McCIellan wid all our eyes. And if 
he'd jes come leetle closer, dar's a darky here 
what'ud a leff dis State quick !" 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 283 

At this instant I chanced to raise my eyes, 
and there, in the distance, I beheld the glorious 
old Stars and Stripes floating proudly and beau- 
tifully upon the breeze. 

"There she is! God bless her stars!" burst 
from two hundred and sixty throats in one 
breath of relief. The very clouds seemed to 
break asunder and let the glorious sun down 
upon our enfranchised souls. We wept, and 
laughed, and shook hands, and bounded with 
delight, until some time after we were taken 
aboard the Federal transport, which had been 
sent up the James river for us. We were soon 
tossing on the ocean, and in due time arrived 
without accident at Washington. 

My first act upon landing and reaching Wil- 
lard's Hotel, was to secure th^ services of a 
photographer, who took myself and comrade 
with the chain about our necks, and in our 
rebel rags, exactly as is represented in the en- 
graving: The next important operation was to 
clean myself, trim my beard and hair, and make 
myself fit to go into decent society. This was 
by no means a small undertaking; but by dint 
of scrub-brushes, soaps of incredible strength, 
and exercise of muscle to an indefinite extent, 
I at last succeeded in accomplishing mj^ objects. 
As I left the bath-room, I noticed at the other 



284 BEYOND THE LINES; OR 

end of the hall, a tall strange gentleman, who, 
for all I did not recognize him, seemed familiar 
to me. However, I walked toward him, and 
he did the same, coming toward me. When I 
got sufficiently near to address him, I bowed 
and extended my hand. He did exactly the 
same. I thought he was behaving very 
strangely, and with rather a grim smile I drew 
back and raised myself to my full height. He 
did exactly the same, and I suddenly discovered 
that I had been the victim of a huge mirror, 
and that I had, all the while, been mistaking 
myself for a clever, gentlemanly-looking old 
friend of mine. I merely relate this circum- 
stance to prove to the reader, that a man who 
is unfortunate enough to spend six months in 
Dixie, is scarcely able to recognize himself upon 
his return home. 

Home I home! that word still sounds with 
strange music in my ears. Its mention brings 
before my mind the little cottage in Ohio, with 
its happy yet anxious faces turned up the road, 
along which papa must come after being away 
so many months. Home ! ah, that is but another 
name for the dear being, who, while I lay 
wounded and languishing in the loathsome jails 
of a merciless enemy, cared for the sweet babes 



A YANKEE PRISONER LOOSE IN DIXIE. 285 

of the captive, who taught their little lips to 
add a prayer for papa to their vesper ofierings 
at the mercy-seat, and who, weary with many 
months of watching, never ceased to treasure 
in her heart's holiest recesses him who pens this 
tribute. 



THE END. 




CLARK'S SCHOOL flSITOR. 

A DAY-SCHOOL MONTHLY. 

ALEXANDER CLARK, EDITOR. 

This Journal for teachers and youth, has become a 
general favorite in the schools and in families. For 
a number of years it has been thoroughly tested by 
teachers and by the times, and is steadily increasing 
in public favor. Where it is once introduced, it 
generally holds its circulation year after year. 

The Visitor contains Readings, Stories, Dia- 
logues, Poems, Hints on Teaching, and Helps in 
in Learning, Puzzles, Enigmas, 

SONGS AND MUSIC. 

of the choicest, and newest kind, together with a 
rare variety of Editorials, Notes of Travel, Lite- 
rary and Scientific matter for young and old. 

The Contributors to the Visitor are among the 
most experienced writers of the day, and special 
care is taken to make each number a gem in itself. 
TERMS, IN ADVANCE: 

1 copy, one year, 50 cents, 

2 copies, " ^ Q 40 each, 80 " 

10 " " <9 30 " 3 00 

And 30 cents for any larger numl)^. 

J. W. DAUGHADAY, Publisher, 

1308 Chestnut street, Philadelphia. 




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